Digimon Adventure: American Version
by Just Another Fanatic
Summary: A rewrite of the first season. Mitchell, Landon, Payton, Marcy, Damien, Doug, and Alex fell into the digiworld and nothing would ever be the same for them as they met digimon, good and bad, and have to learn to work together to save the worlds.
1. Down the Rabbit Hole

**Hey, so I got bored again... no surprise. Anyway, so I took a few characters I have, but don't really have stories and made this. It's a rewrite of the first season, using Americans instead of Japanese kids. There will be new digimon, both good and bad, even though a few from the original series will make appearances. Anyway, I am changing a few things (like not all of them were at camp and not everything will happen with the leader first). Hope you enjoy it and please review.**

**Also, I will be writing this sort of like episodes.**

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Down the Rabbit Hole **(1)**

It all began one afternoon in mid-June, at a summer camp in Illinois. Split into many groups and divided randomly, the children all went on hikes through different areas of the surrounding campgrounds.

Robert "Mitchell" Higgins, age thirteen, was a leader of one group. It was his fifth year attending the camp, and his first time attending it as an over-night camper and a councilor-in-training.

"This is a meadow," Landon Pone, age twelve, said with a roll of his dark brown eyes, also a repeat camper.

"Let's play tag!" Alex Pone, age eight, shouted emerging from the tall grass they had been trudging through. He tagged one girl on the hip. "You're it!" And he ran further into the meadow, causing the seeds of dandelions to fly into the air in his wake.

Marcy May, age twelve, giggled and chased after the youngster. "Don't think you can get too far," she called after him, but was obviously allowing him to stay in the lead.

"Don't encourage him, Marcy," Landon yelled.

"Don't get your knickers in a bunch," Payton Summers, age eleven said. "Alex is just a kid. Let him have his fun."

"Hey, for that matter," Doug Loss, age eleven, said throwing his arms over Payton's and Landon's shoulders, "we're all just kids, when you think about it."

"I'm not," Mitchell quickly amended.

"And in a matter of months, I won't be either," Landon said walking away from the younger boy to try to catch his brother.

"Can't catch me," Alex yelled, arms in the air and laughing. "Can't catch me!" Until he bumped into someone. He fell down and looked up to see someone he definitely didn't recognize.

"Watch it, you little brat," the boy said. He was Damien Queen, age eleven, on his way from his house to an outlet mall.

"Sorry about that," Mitchell called out, approaching.

"Shouldn't he be on a leash or something?" Damien questioned.

"Watch what you say about him," Landon said, not liking this other kid's attitude. Landon was tall and strong for his age, more or less towering over the younger, much shorter and thinner Damien.

"Sorry to disturb you boy scouts," Damien said. "But I have something useful to do with my time." He turned back down the path he had been on and continued walking. That was until the ground began to shake.

"An earthquake?" Payton yelled, losing her balance and falling down the grass. She sneezed as the dandelion floaters surrounded her.

"But this is the middle of Illinois!" Doug said. **(2)**

"Get away from the trees," Mitchell yelled, running toward the two still near a few trees. But, as the ground shook harder, he too was unable to stay standing and fell to the ground.

"What's happening?" Marcy yelled as the ground beneath her began to break apart and a bright glow erupted from the cracks.

"Hang on, Alex," Landon yelled, holding his brother tightly as the ground near them broke as well.

In a matter of seconds, but what seemed like much longer, all of them were falling into the cracks in the ground and falling like Alice down the rabbit hole. **(1)**

Mitchell woke to a pounding on his chest. He slowly opened his eyes, and yelled seeing a green, scaly creature on his chest. He jumped to his feet, the creature falling to the ground.

"You're awake, oh, finally, you're awake!" the thing yelled.

Mitchell, his green eyes wide, stared down at the creature for a moment. He shook his head, and pulled his Oakley sunglasses from on top of his head to over his eyes so he could run his hand through his spiked blonde hair. "This cannot be happening." He looked around. "What happened to the others?"

"Don't know," the blob said. "Must have landed somewhere else."

Mitchell was a tall, lean, and admittedly good-looking for his age, taking after the rest of his family. He was an athletic kid, playing soccer, baseball, and football at his hometown, which was in Texas. He wore a white t-shirt with the Nike swish on it, black jeans, and black hiking boots. There was a red knapsack snapped around his hips, the sack on his left side.

"I have to find them," Mitchell said, looking around.

"I'll help you," the thing said, bounding along next to him as he began to move.

Mitchell stopped and looked at the thing. "What are you?"

"I'm a digimon," it said.

"A what?"

"Digimon. Digital monster. Specifically, I am a Glickymon."

Mitchell stared down at it. "Digi-mon?"

"Yep!"

"Where am I?"

"This is Harposa Island," Glickymon said.

Mitchell lifted a blonde eyebrow. "Never heard of it."

"It's very secluded," Glickymon said. "In the middle of the ocean."

"Middle of the ocean!? What ocean!?" Mitchell yelled.

"Mitchell?" he heard Marcy's voice and turned around to see her push her way through some bushes. She had a small, round thing, this one yellow-feathered with two wings and struggling to keep up with Marcy as it flew.

"You have one too?" Mitchell asked, for no apparent reason as it was obvious, as he pointed at the flying thing.

"Uh, yeah," Marcy said. "This is Lintumon. She insisted on following me."

Marcy giggled a little, smiling. She was a pretty girl, a little on the short side, but with an athletic physique and tanned skin from spending all her time out-doors. Her long blonde hair was pulled into a high pony-tail and her blue eyes crinkled at the corners as she smiled. She wore a denim miniskirt with footless leggings underneath, black sandals, a blue tube-top with a knitted, capped-sleeved, cropped green cardigan buttoned over the top so that she fit the camp's dress code.

"We'd better find the others," Mitchell said, approaching Marcy. "Do you know where any of the others landed?"

"I'm not sure," Marcy said. She turned to Lintumon. "Do you think you can fly up over the trees and see if you can spot any other humans?"

"I'll do my best," Lintumon said and began flapping harder, slowly flying upward.

"She's going to get an aneurism doing that," Glickymon said.

"Do you want to climb?" Mitchell asked looking at the lizard digimon. It blinked a few times. "Case and point."

"There are some due west," Lintumon said gliding back down in a spiral until she landed in Marcy's hands.

"Cool," Marcy said. "Let's go!" She began walking.

"Um, maybe we should go west," Mitchell said, pointing a full 135 degrees to the right of where she was heading.

She laughed. "Sorry," she said, and fell into line behind Mitchell and Glickymon. They quickly came across Landon and Doug. Each of them had a small digimon near them, a fly-like digimon was circling Doug's head, making a loud buzz, while a small furry ball with large, floppy ears sat at Landon's feet.

"Let's just wait for the others," Doug said. "They can't be too far, and with your yelling, they'll find us in no time."

Doug, just short of Mitchell's height, was the thinnest of the group, with long, lanky appendages. His black hair was buzzed close to his head and his eyes were a murky hazel. He was a pale guy, and didn't get out much, preferring to stay on his computer playing RPGs or in front of his television, fingers flying as he played any of countless video games on several different systems. He wore a bright red shirt that had the words "I'm with Awesome" and a black arrow pointing up, jean shorts the fell to above his knees, and the worst fashion crime imaginable, brown leather sandals with white socks.

Landon, on the other hand, was also tall, but was more muscular, especially for his age. His orange-brown hair was loose around his head, and peeked out from under a camouflaged cap. He wore a brown t-shirt, khaki and brown plaid cargo shorts that fell past his knees, and brown walking sandals.

"And I say that we go and find them," Landon shouted. "I don't know about you, but I have a younger brother out there and he's probably alone and scared."

"He's probably not alone," Doug said, snatching the flying thing out of the air. "He probably has a digimon, just like you and me. Don't you think, Insettimon?"

"Definitely," Insettimon said.

"Hey, guys," Marcy called out, rushing in front of Mitchell and smiling. "Isn't this crazy?"

"Yes, this is," Landon said. "So, I'm finding Alex, and we're getting back to camp."

"Landon," Alex's voice called from the other side of the clearing, and he pushed past a large leaf in his way, carrying a small, red, pig-like creature in his arms. He laughed loudly and ran to his brother. Payton and Damien followed, each carrying their own small digimon.

Alex was by far the shortest of the group, being only eight. He had messy red hair, most of it falling over the band of his black visor. His eyes were big and brown and almost always smiling. He was paler than his brother, with freckles across his face, neck, and up and down his arms. He was in a black shirt with a Pacman on the front, and three ghosts on the back, jeans, and dirty blue and white sneakers.

"You have a digimon too?" Alex asked. He held up his pig thing. "This is Sikamon. Sikamon, this is my big brother, Landon. Who's you digimon?"

"Oh, this is Pupmon," Landon said, blushing a bit to find his brother was more than fine.

"It looks like we all have digimon," Payton said. "This is Halamanmon," she said of the green thing that looked like a head of cabbage, only with two blooming flowers on her head. Payton wasn't nearly as preppy as Marcy, and in fact, Marcy considered her to be a little odd. Payton's long, light brown hair was in half pig-tails, half down with slanted bangs over her right eye. Her left eye was a light blue, the right completely blocked by her hair. She was thin, short, and with average Caucasian skin. She wore blue ballet flats, opaque green tights, a black pencil skirt from her waist to her knees, and a green, tube top with a sheer shirt over it that had long, flared sleeves, a mock neck, and cut out shoulders. Around her head, under the pigtails, was a pink head band with black cat ears to the sides.

Then there was Damien. He had curly black hair, large, dark blue eyes, was short, thin, and cute, with pale skin that nicely contrasted his hair, unlike Doug whose skin and hair opposed one another. Damien wore a yellow polo shirt with a popped collar, tight dark jeans, and black converse high-tops with yellow laces, along with a black fedora. The digimon in his hands was blue and looked to be a fish of some sort, with fins, and a tail.

"Are we all here?" Mitchell asked.

"Yeah," Payton said. "Wherever here is."

"It's Harposa island," Damien's digimon said.

"Maybe we should all introduce ourselves," Marcy said.

"That would be a good idea," Damien said.

"I guess I'll start," Marcy said. "I'm Marcy, and this little girl is Lintumon."

"I'm Alex and this is Sikamon."

"My name is Landon, and here at my feet is Pupmon."

"Doug, and this is Insettimon."

"I am Payton and my friend here is Halamanmon."

"I'm Damien, along here with Kalamon."

"Which leave us," Mitchell said. "I'm Mitchell, and this is Glickymon. We all settled?"

"Not really," Damien said.

"You have to learn twice as many names as us," Marcy said. "We understand."

"I've got the names down, Marcy," Damien said. "I'm not settled about where we are or why we're here."

"I told you already," Kalamon said. "This is the digital world, and you're on Harposa island."

"If only we were allowed cells at camp," Mitchell said.

"Who says we're not?" Landon asked, reaching into his pocket and pulling out a phone. He frowned. "No signal."

Damien and Doug both reached into their pockets as well. "Same here," Doug said.

"What's this?" Damien asked, holding up a yellow device that looked a bit like a small, square cell phone. "This isn't mine!"

"Sure it is," Glickymon said. "You should each have one."

The other six kids reached into their pockets and pulled out similar devices, only in different colors. "But," Doug questioned. "What are they?"

"Uh... I'm not sure," Insettimon said.

"We just know that you all have them," Lintumon said.

"You're all useless," Landon frowned. "You don't know where we are or what these things are for."

"We already told you," Pupmon said. "This is Harposa island."

"There's no such place as Harposa Island!" Damien yelled.

"Clearly, there is," Payton said.

"I'd say more likely, this is a dream," Mitchell said.

"It doesn't feel like a dream," Alex said.

"And it sure as hell doesn't smell like a dream," Payton said taking a sniff.

"Oh, everything here smells so much better than a dream," Marcy said. "I love the aromas here. The outdoors smell so much better than the city."

"Apparently you've never been on a farm," Mitchell said. "But, for now, I say we start moving and find someone else."

"Like who?" Landon asked.

"Other digimon?" Sikamon asked.

"No," Mitchell said. "Adults. Human adults."

"But, you're the only humans we've ever seen," Halamanmon said.

"Just great," Damien said. He reached into his pocket again and this time pulled out an iPhone. "How is it possible that I don't have service?"

"Clearly, this isn't a place for cell phone service," Payton said.

"Do you guys hear something?" Alex asked looking around.

"No," Landon said. "Wait... was it a thump?"

"I just felt the ground move, I think," Sikamon said.

Suddenly, the ground definitely shook. "It's like something giant is taking steps," Doug said.

"Not just anything giant," Insettimon said flying up. "It's Mammothmon!"

Mammothmon, a giant, prehistoric elephant digimon with thick metal fur and giant tusks. It can crush its enemies under its feet, or blast them with its Tusk Crusher.

"Let's get out of here!" Lintumon yelled and began fleeing as fast as her wings could take her. Within another step, however, Mammothmon appeared before them all.

"I'm with the feathered ball!" Damien yelled, scooping up Kalamon and running. The rest followed suit, grabbing their digimon and running.

"Don't slow down for anything!" Mitchell yelled as Mammothmon took pursuit.

"Waah!" Alex yelled, dropping Sikamon as he tripped and fell.

Sikamon jumped to his legs and faced Mammothmon. "Bubble Blow!" A stream of pink bubbles flew at the elephant digimon, but it didn't even slow it down.

"Alex!" Landon stopped and turned around. Still holding Pupmon, he grabbed his brother with his other arm and pulled him to the side just as the giant digimon was about to step on him. Sikamon cowered and Mammothmon stepped right over him, not hurting the pig-like in-training digimon. It continued on its pursuit of the other kids and digimon.

"What were the bubbles?" Alex asked as Sikamon ran to Alex's side.

"That was my attack," Sikamon said. "But it was useless against a digimon so much stronger."

"Why is it chasing us?" Marcy yelled, now carrying the small Lintumon.

"Because we probably look like food," Glickymon said.

"That doesn't make sense," Doug said. "I don't think that elephants or wooly mammoths eat meat."

"It's a digimon," Insettimon said. "Just because it looks like an elephant doesn't mean it is."

"Hate to break this to you," Damien yelled when he glanced back, "but it's gaining!"

"Then let us take care of it!" Kalamon said jumping from Damien's hands.

"Better you than me," Damien said.

"Lintumon, no!" Marcy yelled with her small yellow bird jumped from her grip.

"Glickymon," Mitchell yelled, sliding to a stop and turning around.

"Bubble Blow!" the five small digimon yelled, and shot at the large charging digimon.

"That's not helping at all!" Payton said. "Get out of there." But the digimon kept trying. "Halamanmon!"

Suddenly, Payton's small red device began to vibrate and glow.

"Halamanmon, evolve to... Bloommon!"

Bloommon was a tall, slender plant digimon with roots for legs, a stem of a torso, leaves for arms, and a fully bloomed orchid as a head. She fisted up one leaf hand, then threw it in Mammothmon's direction, a spray of pollen flying at the elephant digimon. "Pollen Punch!"

Finally, this slowed the digimon down, hitting its head to the side and confusing it.

"I've slowed it down, so keep moving!" Bloommon yelled, bringing up the rear as they all turned and began running again. It didn't take long before Mammothmon was on the chase again.

"How do we stop it?" Marcy yelled.

"Keep up with the running comes to mind," Lintumon said.

"My body was so not built for this kind of torture," Doug said. He yelled when a puff of air blown from Mammothmon's trunk blew past him, and suddenly, his indigo device began to glow and vibrate.

"Insettimon, evolve to... Buzzmon!"

Buzzmon looked like an electronic fly a little bigger than Doug's head with long front arms that looked almost human. It buzzed it's wings hard and quickly, then shot off a blast of energy from the kinetic energy he had built up. "Buzzing Blasts!"

Once again, Mammothmon was hit and stopped for a moment.

"Come on, we have to help," Kalamon said to Lintumon and Glickymon.

"No, you can't," Marcy said.

"You're too small!" Mitchell said, holding onto his scaled digimon partner.

"Go get 'em, Tiger," Damien said without emotion.

Marcy's violet device, Mitchell's orange device, and Damien's yellow device all began to glow and vibrate.

"Lintumon, evolve to... Tweetomon!"

"Glickymon, evolve to... Lagartomon!"

"Kalamon, evolve to... Ottemon!"

"Feather Flow," Tweetmon, a blue and red zebra-striped digimon that appeared to be in the form of a Macaw-like bird, yelled as several blue and red feathers blasted at Mammothmon.

"Reptilian razor back," Lagartomon, a green, scaly digimon shaped like an iguana, only standing on its hind legs, yelled as the crests on its back and face fired small, continuous blasts.

"Phosphoric ink spray!" Ottemon, a octopus-shaped digimon a blue head and eight white legs, yelled balancing on four legs while spraying ink with the other four.

Mammothmon was thrown back and fell into a few trees from the attacks.

"Hey, guys, this way," Payton yelled, standing between two bushes. Apparently a slide had been installed, and it seemed the quickest, safest, and most sure escape from Mammothmon. Payton and Bloommon jumped first, followed by Damien and Ottemon, Marcy and Tweetmon, Doug and Buzzmon, with Mitchell and Lagartomon taking up the rear. They all landed in a pile at the bottom.

"Where did the others go?" Alex asked, stepping out of the brush once all signs of Mammothmon were gone and the thumping had stopped.

"I'm not sure," Landon said. He began cautiously down the way they had gone. "Let's see if we can find them."

"Great idea, Landon," Pupmon said.

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**(1) Reference(s) to Alice in Wonderland.**

**(2) There have been Earthquakes there (I was in one, but it was really weak and I didn't even realize it until someone told me about it).**

**Anyway, I hoped you liked the first chapter and please review. I have the next chapter already written, and more or less I've got the whole thing planned.**


	2. Zorromon Leaps into Action

**Hey, thanks for reading the first chapter. We're going to get a little more into a few characters now, chapter by chapter, starting with Landon a little more. Anyway, here's the second chapter.

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Zorromon Leaps into Action

"Are we in a jungle?" Payton asked.

"Sure looks like a jungle," Marcy said.

"It can't be a jungle," Mitchell said. "We were just in a northern forest."

"Not to mention we just got attacked by a WOLLY MAMMOTH!" Damien yelled.

"No, we were attacked by Mammothmon," Lagartomon said.

"What happened to you all?" Doug asked. "Before you were all, well, smaller..."

"We evolved," Buzzmon said.

"Yeah," Tweetmon said. "Before, we were just in-training, now, we're rookies."

"Hey, what happened to Landon, Pupmon, Alex, and Sikamon?" Bloommon asked.

"Oh, man, they must still be up there," Mitchell said looking up the slide they had come down. "I'll climb back up and see if I can find them." Mitchell jumped onto the slide, but it was difficult to climb.

"Let me," Tweetmon said, jumping into the air and flapping her wings. However, she couldn't get too far off the ground. "Man, I got heavy."

"Then, allow us," Ottemon said, wrapping one tentacle around Damien, and then using his suctions to climb the slide with six of his other tentacles.

"Whoa, me, why are you taking me?" Damien yelled as he was lifted into the air.

"Because, I'm obligated to protect you," Ottemon said.

"So you're taking me back toward the danger?"

"Oh, shut up and take it, Damien," Payton yelled.

"Yeah," Doug said with a smirk, then attempted to imitate the tone Damien had used earlier and said, "Go get 'em, Tiger."

"Meanwhile, I'm starved," Marcy said sitting down on a tree stump.

"Yeah, couldn't this have waited until after lunch?" Doug asked.

"Do you know where we can get some food around here Glickymon... or uh...?" Mitchell couldn't remember what Glickymon had evolved into.

"I'm Lagartomon now," the lizard digimon said.

"So, what, you guys just evolve when you feel like it and become something totally new?" Payton asked.

"Not exactly," Bloommon said. "We need your help to evolve."

"But we do become something new," Buzzmon said.

"Well, that's cool," Doug said.

Damien was pouting when he and Ottemon finished climbing the slide again. Mammothmon was no where to be seen, but neither were Landon, Alex, and their two digimon.

"Landon!" Ottemon called. "Alex! Pupmon? Sikamon? Can you hear me?"

"I'm guessing no," Damien said. "Looks like they're gone. Let's get back to the others."

"Hey, Landon, you hear that?" Pupmon asked.

"It sounds like someone's calling for us," Alex said. He grabbed his brother's hand and began dragging him. "Come on! Let's go!"

"Wait for me, Alex!" Sikamon called and followed closely.

"We're coming," Alex called out. They turned a corner on the path and found Damien and Ottemon were a ways up.

"Oh, it's you," Landon rolled his brown eyes when he saw who was waiting for him. "I didn't know you actually cared about us."

"I don't," Damien said, crossing his arms and turning away.

"Who are you?" Alex asked Ottemon.

"My name is Ottemon," the eight-legged fish digimon introduced himself. "I evolved from Kalamon."

"Wow!" Alex said. He turned to Sikamon. "Can you evolve into another digimon too?"

"Sure I can," Sikamon said. "I just... don't know how."

"It'll happen sooner than you'll know," Ottemon said. "Ready to head back down the slide?"

"A slide?" Alex perked up even more.

"Yeah, the others are at the bottom of this slide," Damien said and pointed at the slide he had already gone down once.

"Cool," Alex said. "Let's go."

"Alex, wait," Landon tried to catch his brother, but Alex was already sliding down as fast as he could go.

"I'm coming too," Sikamon said and scrambled onto the slide, sliding down on his stomach, his four legs all sticking out in different directions."

"We found them, now let's go, Ottemon," Damien said, climbing onto the slide and heading down, Ottemon not more than a moment behind him.

"Are we going too?" Pupmon asked, turning his eyes up at Landon.

"Yeah," Landon said, climbing on and following the slide down, landing at the bottom where the others were waiting for him.

"Let's get to moving," Mitchell said. "Find a place where we can sit down and work things out."

"And find food," Lagartomon said.

"Yeah, fooooooood!" Pupmon howled.

"Hey, calm down," Landon said. "I'm the one that is carrying you, after all."

"They all evolved," Alex observed. "Could you teach Sikamon to evolve?"

"Um... it's not exactly teachable," Bloommon said.

"Hey, don't worry," Doug said. "It won't be long before Sikamon evolves." He bent down and said a little quieter, "I'll bet Sikamon evolves before Pupmon."

Alex laughed. "Well at least someone thinks I'm funny," Doug said.

"Wow, one out of thirteen," Damien said. "Not to mention he's six."

"I'm eight," Alex said.

"Well, you act six," Damien said.

"Could you, like, sew your mouth shut?" Payton asked.

"That's gotta be painful," Ottemon said.

"She didn't mean it literally," Bloommon said.

"Yes I did," Payton said. "But I assumed he wouldn't."

It was a little while later that they came to an area by a lake that had lush, soft grass for them to rest on. They were all hungry, but none of them had food.

"That's okay," Lagartomon said.

"Right," Tweetmon agreed. "You guys rest and we'll collect food."

"This place wouldn't happen to have a Taco Bell, would it?" Doug asked.

"Let's not get our hopes so high," Mitchell said.

"Hey, Alex, why don't you go with them, okay?" Landon said smiling at his little brother.

"Okay," Alex said.

"And don't be afraid to eat as much as you can," Landon said as Alex walked off.

"Great, he's going to eat all the food," Damien said as Alex and Sikamon disappeared into the forest with the rest of the digimon.

"What are we going to do?" Mitchell asked ignoring Damien's comment.

"It doesn't seem like we have much of a choice," Payton said. "We're here, and as far as we can tell, we're stuck here."

"It's no where on earth," Landon said. "Like we're in..."

"A different dimension," Doug said.

"It's kind of exciting," Marcy said.

The other five stared at her. Mitchell shook his head. "This is not good."

"That much we know," Landon said.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, before Doug spoke up again. "So, what's your story?"

"What do you mean?" Marcy asked.

"Why were you even at camp to begin with?" Doug elaborated. "What put you all in the spot to come here?"

"Wasn't it just destiny?" Landon questioned. "I mean, the digimon were waiting for us specifically. They knew us before we were even here, right?"

"That doesn't answer his question," Marcy said.

"Why don't you go first, then," Damien suggested.

"Sure," Marcy said. "I wanted to go to camp. I'm a city girl, but I loved the one time I went camping four years ago, so I wanted to camp again. Granted, the whole sleeping in tents and catching fish idea was a little much, so I chose this camp, and it only took a year and a half of begging to convince my parents to let me go for two weeks."

"Bad timing," Damien said. "I was heading out to meet a few friends at the outlet at the end of the path I was on. The plan was ice cream and a movie. Guess I missed it by now."

"I've been coming to camp for the last five years," Mitchell said. "I visit my grandparents near there every summer. So my sister and I have always spent the days at camp and nights with our grandparents."

"But aren't you doing overnight this year?" Payton asked.

Mitchell nodded. "My grandfather died over the year, so this year, I'm switching off every week between overnight and day. I'm just glad that Ronni decided to spend the first week with Grandma."

"Who's Ronni?" Doug asked.

"My little sister," Mitchell said. "She's about Alex's age."

"Well, it might have been nice for him to have someone his age," Landon said. "Anyway, my dad just bought a new Corvette for his mid-life crisis. He figures that by sending Alex and me to camp every day, we'll be too tired when we return home to do anything active near it."

"Payton?" Doug turned to the girl.

"You first," Payton said.

"It was you who started this," Mitchell said.

Doug sighed. "My parents want me off the computer more often. So they figured camp would help me to be more active and make me interact with people my age, off of RPGs."

"RPG?" Marcy asked.

"Role play game," Doug said.

"It's where geeks make up characters and interact with other geeks that have made up characters," Damien said.

"Oh, seriously, shut it," Payton said.

"Your turn anyway," Damien said staring her in the eyes.

Payton frowned. "My parents don't like the kind of friends I make. They don't like who I am and how I act and the fact that I spend time in front of a canvas rather than going out for student council. They're politicians, so they wanted to promote how all-American we are by having me go to a popular overnight camp for a few weeks. They met in the army, and my art is the bane of their existence. The deal was three weeks here and I could spend the rest of my summer at art camp. I think they figured that I would drop out early, and then they could stop me from art camp... well, at least until we came here."

Marcy began chewing on her pinky nail. "So, am I the only one without a sad story?"

"Looks like it," Damien said.

"Oh, well, maybe you can mend my injured heart with your smile," Doug said smiling at her.

She giggled. "Nice try, Doug," she said.

"There's a reason your last name is Loss," Landon said standing up.

"How do you know that?" Mitchell asked leaning back.

"Same school," Landon said. "We have a few mutual friends."

"So you guys live by the camp?" Payton asked.

"Not too far," Landon said. "Within biking distance, I guess."

"And we all know he lives close to it," Payton said, nodding her head in Damien's direction.

"Your point?" Damien asked.

"I'm just trying to map out where we all live, I guess," Payton said. "We're probably going to be here for a while. Might as well learn a few basic facts about each other."

"Well, where are you from then?"

"Springfield," Payton said. "What about you, Marcy?"

"Chi-town."

"Gee, you're all from Illinois," Mitchell said. "My grandparents live close to the university campus, but my family is from Texas."

"Cool," Marcy said.

"Hey, Mitchell, what's with the knapsack?" Doug asked, realizing that there was a black sack around Mitchell's hips.

"Oh, it's just the first aid and stuff," Mitchell said opening it. There were several band-aids, anti-bacterial spray, medical tape, and gauze, along with a few non-first aid things for camping, such as a compass, bug spray, a small flashlight, and a Swiss Army knife.

"Well, at least we have a few things," Landon said. "That's good."

"We got food," Alex called out as he and the digimon returned. He had about ten apples in his arms. "We already ate a bunch, so you guys can have as many as you like. Granted, as they were all carrying several apples, aside from Pupmon, there were more than enough to go around.

"What are we going to do with the rest?" Marcy asked.

"We can leave them here," Damien said.

"I was actually thinking that we make baskets," Bloommon said. "So that we can carry food with us when we can. That way we don't have to find new food every time we get hungry, we'll have a store."

"You know how to make baskets?" Doug asked.

"In theory," Bloommon said.

"Anyway, let's rest here for the night," Mitchell said, pulling himself back to his feet. "Lagartomon, let's go gather some wood for a fire. Think that you guys could try to catch some fish so that we're living on more than apples?"

"Leave that to me," Ottemon said before slipping into the water.

"Is it just me, or does anyone else wonder how he survives out of water?" Landon questioned.

"Well, as long as it doesn't kill him," Pupmom said bouncing at Landon's feet.

A few hours later, they had managed to build a fire, with a nice sized pile of sticks to replenish it, and had several nice sized fish cooking.

Once all were fed (not all full, but they were no longer hungry, as Landon had suggested that they save a few apples for when they would be hungry again), they began thinking about sleeping arrangements.

"We should also think about having a look out," Payton said as she and Bloommon were stacking several branches perpendicular to several branches between two trees just three feet from one another.

"What's the point?" Doug asked.

"Um, might I remind you of Mammothmon?" Payton asked.

"A fluke," Doug said. "How many more evil digimon could there be here?"

"A lot," Buzzmon said. "And we're still small."

"Yeah, if a digimon should come near, I'd feel a lot safer if we knew immediately, rather than when it is cooking us over a fire or something," Damien said.

"So you'll take first watch?" Doug asked.

"Wha- I didn't say _that_!"

"I'll take first watch," Mitchell said.

"Wake me when you start getting tired," Landon said sitting down and leaning against a thick tree. Alex sat down next to him and fell asleep leaning against him, Sikamon and Pupmon both on Alex's other side. It didn't take long for the others to get comfortable and fall asleep while Mitchell stood around the fire, looking around every once in a while.

"Not much is happening," he said after a little while. He looked down at Lagartomon after hearing no response to see the lizard digimon had fallen to sleep. "I guess you noticed as well," he said.

It was a few hours later than Mitchell poked Landon awake, using a stick as he didn't know how Landon would respond. To his surprise, Landon just opened his dark brown eyes and eyed the stick until Mitchell stopped poking him.

"Your turn for the watch," Mitchell said.

"I can tell," Landon said. "Seeing as you woke me up."

"Well, aren't you going to get up?" Mitchell asked.

"No, I think I'll just stay here for a while," Landon said. "I'll be fine, I won't fall asleep."

"Well, you better not," Mitchell said, finding a spot under a tree that wasn't terribly uncomfortable.

Landon sat awake for a while, keeping his eyes sharp, one arm around his brother. Finally, Landon extracted himself from his position and walked to the fire, feeding it a few more small logs as it had been dying down for a while. The area lit up a bit more for a while and he took a good look around.

Landing in the Digital World, the place had looked like the forests he went camping with his dad and older brothers during the middle of the summer usually, a trip that his father had abruptly cancelled when he bought his Corvette. However, after gliding down the slide, they had ended up in what appeared to be a subtropical jungle. Now, however, this lake and these trees seemed to be right out of his own backyard. _If only it was a bit more like the landscapes of home_ he thought bitterly, snapping a twig before dropping it into the crackling fire. _At least we'd be in farm country. There'd be corn and wheat, more vegetables and fruits besides the one apple tree the Digimon and Alex had found._

He sensed someone approaching him from behind and he turned slightly to see Pupmon hopping toward him. "Why are you standing guard alone?" Pupmon asked.

"Didn't seem necessary to wake you," Landon said.

"What if danger appears?" Pupmon asked.

"No offense, but right now, I think I could do more damage to anything that attacks than you," Landon said, even if his tone did sound a bit offensive. He continued in a more friendly tone. "Plus, right now, I think that a better idea would be to wake the others and hide if we were attacked."

"Oh," Pupmon said, looking a little crest-fallen. "But, it never hurts to have a second pair of eyes looking out, right?"

"I think I can manage," Landon said.

"Well, how about a bit of company, so you have someone you can talk to?" Pupmon asked.

"Talking is likely to wake the others," Landon said.

Pupmon sighed. "We're talking now," Pupmon finally said.

Landon cracked a smirk. "I guess we are."

Suddenly, a howl broke through the air from across the lake. Landon and Pupmon spun quickly and looked at the digimon on the other side. There stood a growling, wiry-furred, grey canine digimon.

"That's Coyomon," Pupmon said. "A champion level, virus type digimon. He's got a monstrous appetite and a keen sense of smell. His special attack is Rancid Blaster."

"What tasty specimens you look to be," Coyomon said, then leapt across the lake, landing between Landon and Pupmon, and the rest of the group.

"Holy Cow!" Doug's voice ripped through the air. "What's that."

"What happened to waking up if something came?" Damien yelled.

The five Rookie digimon jumped up to fight, but Coyomon howled, "Rancid Blaster," green fire erupting from his mouth and hitting all five down.

"Now, which one shall I devour first? You all look so tasty," Coyomon said.

"Get away from them," Landon yelled.

Coyomon turned to them, only to be hit by Pupmon's "Bubble Blow." Coyomon didn't even flinch. "I see you want to be first." He seemed to smile. "Rancid Blaster."

The small In-Training digimon was blasted and bounced over the fire.

"No, Pupmon!" Landon yelled, causing his blue device to vibrate and glow.

"Pupmon, evolve to... Vulpimon!"

Landon stared in awe for a moment at Vulpimon. Pupmon had evolved into a red fox-like digimon with three tails whipping around and extra large ears brimmed with metal and tipped with black. Each of Vulpimon's three tails began to spin, creating small balls of fire. "Tuli Tail," he yelled, all three fireballs launching at Coyomon.

These made Coyomon take a few steps back, but he was still a bit larger than Vulpimon, and still a level up. "Think that scares me?" Coyomon yelled, then launched at Vulpimon, catching the fox digimon in his mouth and throwing him to the side. He began advancing on the wounded digimon.

"Keep away from him," Landon yelled, grabbing one of the logs from the fire and throwing it at Coyomon, hitting the digimon on the head.

Coyomon turned on Landon, baring his teeth. "What are you going to do to stop me?" He jumped at Landon, knocking the twelve-year-old down and then placed a paw on his chest, pressing down.

"Landon, no!" Vulpimon yelled, standing back up. He charged at Coyomon, and in mid-leap, yelled, "Vulpimon, evolve to... Zorromon."

Zorromon pushed Coyomon off Landon and the two canine digimon faced one another, circling. Zorromon, now about Coyomon's size, was a black fox with a white eyemask design in his fur. Like Vulpimon, he had three tails, each longer and the fur looked more like spikes than bushy fox fur. The ears, a bit smaller in comparison to Vulpimon's, were still fox-like, only they were completely made of metal, and were at the moment pulled back as Zorromon was growling at Coyomon.

Coyomon made the first move again. "Rancid Blaster!"

This time it was met with an equally powerful attack from Zorrormon. "Flame Thrower!" Zorromon lowered his front as his three tails all pointed at Coyomon, powerful flames heading toward the coyote-like digimon. Coyomon finally ceased his attack and tried to dodge out of the way, but Zorromon was quicker. "Tail Club!" and with this, Zorromon's three tails all hit Coyomon hard, sending him flying into the lake. Coyomon climbed out on the other side and quickly dodged into the forest.

Zorromon sniffed the air, after a moment, then glowed, returning to Vulpimon before turning and running to Landon's side where Alex and Marcy already were kneeling next to him.

"Are you alright?" Vulpimon asked.

"Yeah," Landon said, pushing himself into the sitting position despite Marcy's attempts to keep him down. "That' was pretty cool, Vulpimon."

"Yeah, I was cool," Vulpimon agreed.

"You were awesome!" Doug said. "That fight... I mean, that would make history!"

"I think you still are cool, Vulpimon," Alex said. He turned to Sikamon. "It's your turn next, Sikamon."

"I'm ready for it," Sikamon said.

"Anyone else want to just get back to sleep?" Payton asked.

"No!"

"Why would we want to?"

"After that amazing battle?"

"Am I the only one concerned that we almost were eaten again?!"

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**Hoped you liked it. Please leave a review. Say anything you want to, even if you're telling me how bad it is. Also, tell me what digimon you would like to see again. I do plan to bring Piximon and Veggiemon, and I'm not sure about Demidevimon. Would you like to see an Agumon, or a Greymon, or what? The chapters are going to be sort of like episodes, and they'll match up a little, but there will also be differences (take the characters I have). The orders of who evolves will switch around from time to time, etc. I'd really like your input, because I haven't written very much yet. Also, which characters do you think are developing faster or slower? Who can I slow down on and who should I speed up? Thanks!**


	3. Hornetmon Starts to Sting

**So, this chapter is a little shorter than the previous two (I tried to extend it, but even then, it was still shorter, I'm not sure why). I hope you like it, and please review with constructive criticism. I mean, seriously, how often to people ask you to criticize their work? Which isn't to say I want you to tell me is sucks, but what you think I can improve on. Thanks.**

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Hornetmon Starts to Sting

Seven children, joined by seven small digimon, were walking along a path that seemed to divide a desert and a tundra.

"Is anyone else put off by the fact that there is a desert next to a frozen wasteland?" Damien asked frustrated.

"It's called a tundra," Landon said.

"Why did we even come this way?" Damien asked, adjusting his fedora so that it shaded more of his face as the sun was blazing down on them. "And why are we walking so much? My feet are starting to blister."

"Maybe you should have worn better walking shoes," Mitchell said glancing at Damien's Converse All Stars.

"I didn't expect to be hiking through this," Damien said. "I was going to a movie!"

"Can we seriously stop?" Payton asked. "My feet hurt too."

"You definitely should have worn better shoes," Landon said.

"Well, I'm sorry I don't own expensive walking sandals or hiking boots," Payton said, rolling her eyes. "Plus, we were supposed to be going on a light hike."

"So you couldn't come up with anything better than ballet slippers?" Doug asked.

"First, they're ballet flats, not slippers," Marcy said. "You don't really use them to dance ballet. Second, you're wearing socks and sandals, so you have nothing over her."

"You're in sandals yourself," Doug said.

"Do you see any socks on my feet?" Marcy asked. "No, that would defeat the purpose of sandals and pedicures."

The digimon all turned to one another, then looked down at their feet, as none of them wore shoes at all. "Humans sure do talk about funny things," Bloommon said.

"No we don't," Alex said, not involved in the shoe conversation ahead of him. "All people wear shoes, and some are better for things than other shoes."

"Well, why do all humans wear them?" Sikamon asked.

"I... uh... I don't know," Alex said.

"Well, why do _you_?" Lagartomon asked.

"My mom always makes me," Alex said. "Unless I'm in bed or swimming. Even in the house, I wear my flip flops so that I don't step on something that can hurt me."

"That's it," Damien shouted, stopping his progress. "I can't take it any more. I say it's time to stop!"

"Stopping will do us no good," Mitchell said. "If we stop now, we achieve nothing."

"Except for some rest," Payton said. "We might not have a lot of food left, but we can finish off what we have and rest so that we can find a good place for the night and not be too exhausted to have a watch tonight."

"And where exactly do you think we'll find shelter?" Marcy asked. "I can't see anything for miles in any direction."

"Landon and I can go search," Vulpimon said. "While you all take a rest. We'll be back in no time."

"Um... how exactly are we supposed to..." Landon began, but Vulpimon answered the question before he finished asking it.

"Vulpimon, evolve to... Zorromon!" Zorromon stooped lower. "Hop on, Landon."

Landon nodded and climbed on. "Eat something, Alex," he said as Zorromon turned onto the path. A moment later, the two were disappearing down into the horizon.

Damien was the first to sit down, and almost immediately, he pulled his shoes and socks off. He stretched his legs out in front of him and wiggled his toes a bit.

"That's gross, Damien," Payton said sitting down as well, but keeping her feet tucked under her.

"They're no where near you," Damien said, which was true as he had turned toward the tundra. "Plus, it's probably bad to keep them constantly wrapped up. Especially with your tights. Don't your feet hurt?"

"I just need to be off them for a little bit," Payton said. "But, doesn't your mouth hurt?"

"Why would my mouth hurt?" Damien asked.

"Because you're complaining oh so much I would think that your mouth has to have gotten tired by now," Payton replied easily.

"Well, good for you that you're both doing fine," Marcy said. "But, seriously, could you stop? I'm starting to get a headache."

"I'm going to agree with her," Mitchell said.

"And if you don't shut it, he'll slap you both silly," Doug said.

Mitchell gave Doug a quick glare. "You are kidding, right?"

"Of course he is," Lagartomon said. "I get to do all the slapping."

"Please don't encourage him," Damien said.

"I think it might be good if we all had something to eat," Ottemon said, quickly distributing the food they had left over out to everyone.

"I am getting hungry," Tweetmon said.

"So, why is it that Vulpimon was able to evolve into Zorromon and you haven't evolved past your rookie level yet?" Doug asked Buzzmon as they were all eating.

"Well, Doug," Buzzmon said, "evolution is a difficult thing to explain."

"Actually, it's really just a creature's ability to adapt to conditions," Doug said. "Digimon just seem to evolve a lot faster than non-digital creatures. What I don't understand is why Zorromon de-evolved back into Vulpimon."

"Well, when Pupmon, and then Vulpimon evolved, he was adapting to conditions, the condition of his partner being in danger," Buzzmon said. "But, once Coyomon was gone, being Zorromon was wasteful of energy. It's easier to maintain a smaller size, as well as easier to nurture. So, Zorromon returned to Vulpimon."

"Well, why not return to Pupmon, then?" Doug asked.

"Too small, I would assume," Buzzmon said. "Almost defenseless in a place like this. Vulpimon is more skilled, stronger, quicker, all together better, I guess."

"Ah, that makes sense, I guess," Doug nodded. He leaned back and with his head resting on his arms. "So, do you think that you'll be able to evolve into a more powerful digimon?"

"Of course I can," Buzzmon insisted. "I just need the right conditions, and the right help from you."

Zorromon and Landon returned about an hour after they left, and with good news.

"There's an oasis," Landon said jumping off Zorromon. The fox-digimon devolved back into Vulpimon.

"A what?" Doug asked.

"Oasis," Landon repeated. Doug continued a blank stare.

"A patch of fertile land in a desert with water and shade," Damien said.

"A lot of shade," Vulpimon said. "And plenty of water from all around.

"It's not too far off the path," Landon said. "About five miles or so away."

"Five miles!" Payton yelled.

"Oh, five miles is nothing," Mitchell said. "We can walk five miles in an hour if we go at a brisk walk."

"So a regular walk will bring us there in an hour and a half," Marcy said. She stood up. "Okay, troops, lets head out?"

"Troops?" Tweetmon asked.

"Don't pretend to be a general," Payton said. "It'll just make you look more..."

"More what?" Marcy asked after Payton stopped.

"More blonde," Payton finished.

"Okay, you two," Mitchell said, pushing his way between them. "Let's just start moving."

As said, an hour and a half later, the group arrived at an oasis. After everyone had had his or her fair share of water, they all found a place to lay back and rest. The digimon shot off a few attacks, knocking plenty of coconuts from the trees.

"Here you go, Marcy," Tweetmon handed her a coconut. "Eat up. We don't know when the next time we'll get food will be."

"You eat up too," Marcy said.

"I'll go halfsies with you on the coconut," Lagartomon said to Mitchell.

"Why not," the blonde boy agreed and Lagartomon split a coconut in half.

"Make sure you don't eat too much, Alex," Landon said as Alex reached for a second coconut from the pile Sikamon was building.

"Has it occurred to any of you that there are other foods here besides coconuts?" Bloommon asked, pointing to some fig trees and apricot trees. She reached up and began picking some, Buzzmon helping her as they built a pile of foods.

"How about we spend the night here?" Payton said, enjoying the feel of the sun on her skin and the feel of the sand between her toes, knowing that shade and water were just feet away. "We've got water, we've got food..."

"And who knows how far it might be to the next good place to stop," Doug said.

"The sun will probably go down in about an hour anyway, and we don't want to be wandering around at night," Marcy said.

"Okay then, we'll spend the night here," Mitchell said. "I guess we should start a fire, if we can, and decide on watch."

"Suppose there are any fish in this water?" Doug asked, looking down into the water. Living on fruits wasn't exactly the best way to keep up energy for traveling across a huge island.

"None," Ottemon said, coming up out of the water. "This water is absolutely free of all living creatures."

"With you as an exception, obviously," Damien pointed out.

It was still the very early morning when Doug and Buzzmon were on watch. They were the third watch, Landon and Vulpimon having gone first, with Mitchell and Lagartomon second. They figured this way, the girls and Alex wouldn't have to take a watch, and if anything happened during Damien's watch, others were likely to wake up as well.

Doug sighed, looking at the sleeping kids. He wasn't sure how he ended up in the group. He thought back to exactly how they ended up the six people in the hiking group, before they ran into Damien.

_"Okay, campers, get into groups," one counselor announced. "We're going on mini-hikes."_

_Doug had been sitting in the shade on the steps of one of the camp buildings as he really hadn't wanted to be involved in the sporting activities, but a small hike he knew he could handle. He sighed and stood up, looking for someone, anyone, that he either knew or would likely accept him. Everyone else seemed to be athletes, and a lot of them were from other schools, if not other towns._

_"Seriously, Alex, why don't you go with people your own age?" Landon asked as the brothers passed by._

_"Mom said you're supposed to watch over me," Alex said. _

_"Not every second," Landon said, but Alex kept following._

_Doug stood up and followed as well. "Landon!" he called out, waving an arm. Landon turned, then sighed heavily, muttering something under his breath that Doug didn't catch and made Alex look at him funny._

_"You guys looking for a group?" Mitchell asked, approaching them._

_"Yes," Alex answered immediately._

_"Cool, you can join mine," Mitchell said. Doug had seen Mitchell helping out around camp, and had already come to the conclusion that he was a CIT. There were mixed feelings towards the CITs; all the girls seemed to think that the girl campers were fashionably cool and the guys were seriously cute, while the boy campers seemed to view being a CIT as something that meant that he or she was in some way a major loser. The CITs all seemed to be fine with their position._

_Landon sighed heavily again. "Whatever," he said._

_"Mitchell," one of the counselors called before they could set out. Doug turned to see that the older counselor was leading a reluctant girl. "This is Payton. You still have room in your group? Think you could help her get more acquainted to what it's like to be a camper here?"_

_"Sure," Mitchell said with a bright smile. "First timer, I assume?"_

_"What gave me away?" Payton asked, a little moody._

_"Me too," Doug said. "I'm Doug."_

_"Okay, we ready then?" Mitchell asked._

_"Let's just get going already," Landon said._

_They began on their way out of camp, when there was a cry. "Oh no!" they all stopped and turned around to see a blonde girl coming out of the main building. "Where did everyone go?"_

_"Hey, Marcy, right?" Mitchell called out. She spotted them and approached quickly._

_"What happened?" she asked. "Where'd everyone go?"_

_"We're going on group hikes," Mitchell said. He looked around, not spotting any other groups except for one filled with all little kids. "How about you join our group."_

_"Hikes?" she asked._

_"Short easy hikes," Mitchell said. "Just to start getting a lay of the land."_

_"Okay then," she said. _

_This time, when they began on their way, they actually kept going, breaking free from the other camp groups until they met Damien and fell during the earthquake._

"Hey, Buzzmon, you don't think I'm a loser, do you?" Doug asked.

"Not at all," Buzzmon said. "You're one of the funniest and coolest humans I know."

"I'm also one of the only humans you know," Doug reminded the digimon.

"Well, I know Damien," Buzzmon said.

Doug laughed a bit. "You do," he said. He was calming his laughter when he noticed some sand move.

"Did you see that?"

"See what?" Buzzmon asked.

"The sand, it moved," Doug said as he slowly stood up. "Hey... guys..." he called a little louder. A few began to stir a bit. "Gu-AH!" Doug was interrupted when a giant orange serpent sprung up out of the sand right next to him.

"Doug!" Buzzmon called. "Buzzing Blasts!" the small insect digimon shot off a few blasts as Doug fell backwards and scrambled back to where he was safer.

The others had woken up and were all retreating back into the oasis as best they could.

"Who is that!" Mitchell yelled.

"That's Slithermon," Lagartomon announced. "A strong snake digimon that camouflages well and attacks with his strong Vemon Fang, which paralyses its opponents so that he may eat them at his own leisure."

"Not making me feel any better about it," Mitchell said.

"Vulpimon, I think its time to become Zorromon," Landon said, pulling out his digivice.

"Right," the fox digimon nodded and jumped forward. "Vulpimon evolve to... Zorro... Vulpimon?"

"What's wrong?" Alex asked.

"I don't think I'm strong enough to evolve twice in one day," Vulpimon said. He jumped high in the air when Slithermon tried to attack. "Tuli Tail!" The small attack did little but annoy the digimon.

"So what do we do?" Marcy asked.

"May I suggest we run?" Payton asked.

All fourteen of the group turned and began running, Alex scooping the small Sikamon into his arms as Landon kept Alex from falling. Slithermon took pursuit, shooting off streams of venom that they kept dodging. They were almost at the tundra border when Doug got hit in the shoulder, falling. His arm immediately began going numb, and he had trouble standing up, until Slithermon was right on top of him.

"Doug!" Buzzmon called, spinning around. "Buzzing Blast! Take that, you legless lizard."

Slithermon whacked Buzzmon away with the rattle of his tail and turned back to Doug, who was now pushing himself back in the sand with just one leg. "Buzzmon!" Doug yelled as Slithermon was about to spring forward.

"Keep your slimy fangs away from him!" Buzzmon yelled and Doug's indigo digivice began to glow. "Buzzmon evolve to...Hornetmon!"

In Buzzmon's place stood a tall, humaniod digimon. He wore black armor on his torso and thighs, with yellow armor on his arms and lower legs and a yellow mask that covered the whole top half of his head. Some shaggy black hair hung down from the helmet mask and the skin that could be seen was very tanned. He had long thin wings pointing downward, until he looked up and they sprung to life silently.

"Back, you foul beast!" Hornetmon yelled, his voice much lower than Buzzmon's squeak. He jumped forward, flying quickly, and swept Doug up into his arms, placing him down in the group; Slithermon's pounce got him a face full of sand. "You'll be fine once I've defeated this beast, Doug. The venom will wear off."

"Whoa," was Doug's only response.

"Wow," Payton's tone was much the same.

"He got cute," Marcy said.

Hornetmon turned back to Slithermon. "You messed with the wrong digimon's partner, serpent. And now, you shall be defeated." His arms began to glow as he flew at Slithermon, one arm pulled back, clearly ready to punch. He hit the snake, landing several punches that threw Slithermon back a few times, the final one toppling him over. "Stinging Slugger!" Hornetmon yelled, with another punching action, but this one shooting a ray of yellow and black energy. It hit Slithermon, throwing the snake digimon far off into the distance. What could be seen of the snake once he landed burrowed back into the sand. Once they were certain it wasn't coming back, Hornetmon devolved to Buzzmon again.

"Why do we keep getting attacked?" Alex asked, squeezing Sikamon like a teddy bear.

"Because we've somehow gotten stuck in some alternate dimension where evil creatures exist and think that we look like food," Landon said.

Alex's brown eyes began to water as his jaw began to quiver, clearly indicating he was about to cry.

"Great job, Landon," Tweetmon said. "He's your little brother, you couldn't sugar coat it a little?"

"Hey, don't worry Alex," Mitchell said kneeling down in front of the littlest of them. "Nothing is going to hurt you. That's why you've got Sikamon. Plus, you're brave, aren't you?"

"Yeah!" Alex agreed, wiping his eyes.

"So, these attacks are more just shocks, right? You're not afraid," Mitchell said.

"I'm okay," Alex said. "I'm not scared."

"Good," Sikamon said.

"Let's get moving again," Damien said after looking between a few members of the group. "I don't think we're getting back to sleep anytime soon."

As they began moving again, Lagartomon came up next to Mitchell. "How'd you do that?" the lizard digimon asked.

"Do what?"

"Make Alex smile."

"Oh, I have a little sister and she used to get scared all the time," Mitchell said. "I just copied what my brother used to do to make her feel better."


	4. Avesmon's Razor Wing

**I know it's been some time since the last chapter, but I'm working on several projects at once, and looking for a job... correction, was looking for a job. I got one! I'm a working person now!

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Avesmon's Razor Wing

A loud rumble broke through the group of traveling humans and digimon. Though they were in the tundra, the sun beating down on them along with the fact that they had been walking for almost six hours with only a few fruits for breakfast, they were all burning up.

"I'm so hungry," Doug whined.

"Well, we don't have any food, so you'll just have to bare it for right now," Landon said. There was a moment of silence.

"On the bright side, I don't have to worry about gaining any weight," Marcy said. Payton groaned and rolled her eyes, fixing her hair over her eye.

"You're not overweight, Marcy," Tweetmon said, keeping in pace next to her, walking instead of flying. "In fact, you look just perfect."

Damien snorted at that comment.

"Excuse me?" Marcy turned and glared at him. "Do you have something to say about the way I look?"

"Well, not really," Damien said. "Except you're far from perfect."

Marcy's face began to get red. She huffed and walked ahead to the front of the group where Mitchell and Lagartomon were talking. "The nerve of that pipsqueak," she growled.

"Look, we can't just leave him," Mitchell said. "So we'll just have to suffer him for right now."

"Anyway, Ottemon won't leave his side," Lagartomon said. "And he's actually some really good company."

"The poor thing," Marcy said looking back to where Damien adjusted his fedora in an effort to ignore his aquatic digimon partner. "He doesn't deserve to be ignored so much."

"Just ignore him, okay," Mitchell said. "There's obviously something that all of us have in common, so until we figure out what it is, he might not be so bad to keep around. After all if we come to a lake with fish in it, Ottemon's got to be a good fisher, don't you think?"

"You don't think he'll be offended that we're eating fish?" Marcy asked.

"No, Ottemon's a fish eater too, when there are fish to be eaten," Tweetmon said, catching up to Marcy.

"Well, as long as we aren't trying to order octopus legs," Doug said, pushing his way between the two.

Marcy smiled and giggled a bit. This small show of amusement made Doug beam, however, when he attempted to sling an arm over her shoulders, she quickly ducked away and walked step-by-step with Tweetmon, entering into a girly conversation that neither Doug, Mitchell, Lagartomon, nor Buzzmon intended to take part of.

"They all seem to like you very much," Tweetmon said to Marcy once they were sure none of the boys were listening.

"Why shouldn't they?" Marcy asked. "I mean, I'm nice, aren't I?"

"They pay much more attention to you than they do to Payton," Tweetmon said. "They've taken interest in you and try to please you and show off for you."

"And you don't think they do that for Payton?" Marcy asked, glancing behind her to where Payton was walking between Bloommon and Ottemon while Damien was trying intently to pretend that none of the others where there. Glancing to where Mitchell and Doug were walking, they both smiled when they noticed her looking and Doug gave a little wave. Marcy turned forward again before speaking. "Well, maybe if she wasn't so self-involved they wouldn't ignore her so much."

"Self-involved?" Tweetmon asked.

"Yeah," Marcy said. "She's not really interested in the rest of us. She hardly ever talks, and when she does, it's almost always about herself. She's hungry, she's tired, yada yada yada."

"Well, she's not as open, that's certain," Tweetmon said. "But, maybe she's just shy."

"No, shy people don't complain," Marcy said.

"Well, maybe she needs a better influence," Tweetmon said. "She said might not have had someone to look up to, to teach her how she should behave."

Marcy's cheeks reddened as she remembered how Payton had said she disagreed with her parents, how she said her parents didn't approve of anything she did. "Maybe you're right," Marcy said. "I don't think she gets along with her parents."

"Can we rest?" Damien called out, stopping his progress.

"Yeah, let's take a break," Mitchell nodded.

"How about not," Landon said. "We're in a tundra. It might not seem so bad right now, as it's probably abnormally warm, but when the sun goes down, the temperature is going to drop to maybe forty if we're lucky, probably a lot lower. We have no food, and if you haven't noticed, we don't have any shelter, and there's not exactly much wood to build a fire."

"Gee, Landon, maybe a rest will allow us to move a little longer so we can get out of this tundra," Mitchell said.

"Let's at least get to the shrubbery over there on the hill," Landon said pointing to a line of hills not too far off. "At least that way we can get a lay of the land and hopefully the shrubs will have edible berries."

"How will we know if they're edible?" Alex asked.

"I can tell you," Sikamon said.

"Yeah, we know what is and isn't edible," Vulpimon said and began dancing around Landon's legs.

"And if there's anything you don't know," Doug said. "We'll just use Damien as a test subject."

"Have fun trying to get me to agree to that," Damien said.

"I'm sure there will be plenty of berries to go around," Marcy said. "No one has to test anything questionable."

"I'm getting hungry talking about food," Alex said.

"Me too," Lagartomon said.

"So let's go," Mitchell said.

They began their hike to the hill tops and made it to their destination after only fifteen minutes. "What, there aren't any berries..." Buzzmon said when they reached the shrubs.

"They've all been picked," Tweetmon said.

"But by who?" Ottemon.

"My guess would be whoever lives in that village," Damien said pointing to a small village at the base of the hills. The hills, it seemed, were the divider between the tundra and a long pasture stretching out for miles and miles.

"Oh, great," Payton said, blowing her bangs off her face for a moment before they settled right back to where they had been. "More unknown digimon."

"They're not unknown," Tweetmon said. Looking down, several dozen yellow feather balls were flying between the huts, while a bunch of brown fur balls were bouncing around. "Those are Lintumon!"

"And Pupmon!" Vulpimon said. "They won't hurt us."

"And even if they have intentions to try to hurt us, they wouldn't be able to," Bloommon said.

"What are we waiting for?" Alex asked. "Let's go!"

All of them slid down the hill and wound up within a few feet of the village, and only Doug fell forward upon hitting the ground, landing face first in the grass. All the small in-training digimon turned to face their visitors.

"Hey," Mitchell said. "Sorry to come without an invitation, but we were wondering if you might have some food you could share."

"Oh," all the digimon gathered round. "It's our pleasure!"

"We don't get many visitors," one Lintumon said.

"And we have plenty of food for all," a Pupmon said.

"Awesome!" Marcy smiled. "Would there be any water near-by?"

"A well, right over there," a Lintumon directed her.

With all the small digimon bouncing around their feet and flying around their heads, they all had trouble moving for fear of hurting them. However, soon enough, they had all sat down and had had a nice long drink of water while the Pupmon pushed out several large bowls filled with an assortment of berries, seeds, and nuts.

"Oh, look at all the seeds..." Doug said, trying to pick the nuts and berries out in the hopes that those would be enough to sustain him.

"I'm not sure I want any sort of plant suddenly sprouting in my stomach," Payton said putting the bowl down.

"That's impossible," Landon said. "Aside from the fact that these seeds have been dried out, the acid in your stomach would eat away at the seeds long before they could sprout."

"Wow, you know a lot of things, don't you?" one of the Pupmom questioned and gathered around him.

"He helped Vulpimon to digivolve, maybe he could help us," another said and they all crowded closer.

"Uh... I don't think I can help all of you," he said, his eyes darting around to get a look at them all as they all piled closer.

"Why not? Why not? Why not?"

"It doesn't work that way," Lagartomon said. "Each human has a special bond with only one digimon. Landon's is with Vulpimon. Just like Mitchell's bond is with me."

"Where can we find our own humans?" a Lintumon asked.

"The planet Earth might be a good starting point," Damien said. "If you know a way to get there, now would be a good time to share."

"Never heard of it," another Pupmon said.

"Just great," Payton sighed. "We're never going to get home."

"Do you want to leave us?" Bloommon asked.

"I don't," Marcy said. "This is the most substantial thing I've ever done in my life. Aside from the occasional monster attack, I love it here."

"Really?" Tweetmon asked. "You like it here?"

"Yeah," Marcy said. "And you're a lot of the reason that I do. I've only just met you, Tweetmon, but you're already a great friend."

"Anyway, as long as we know we're going to be here, we might as well continue to look on the bright side of things," Doug said. "Being a downer and worrying about what might happen is just going to drag this adventure out longer."

"Thank you Optimistic One and Two," Payton said. "But, I'm a realist, and the reality of this is that we are never getting home."

"We don't even know what the Digiworld is, Payton," Mitchell said. "For all we know, home could be a lot closer to home than we think."

"It might just be over the river and through the woods," Doug said.

"To grandmother's house we go?" Alex asked.

"No, that's where Primary Village is," Buzzmon said.

"It was a joke..." Doug said.

"It was a bad one," Damien then added.

"It wasn't so bad," Marcy said. Damien, Payton, and Landon all just stared at her to indicate that, yes, it was bad.

"I have an idea," Tweetmon said. "Let's spend the night here with the Lintumon and the Pupmon."

"That's a great idea," Buzzmon said.

"Well, we are out of the Tundra," Mitchell said.

"It's not the worst idea I've ever heard," Landon said.

Mitchell looked to the group and they all nodded in agreement. "Then it's settled!"

"Yay!" Cheers from the hyperactive small digimon rang out loudly.

"Maybe for once we won't be attacked," Payton said. She leaned back and a gentle wind blew some of her hair back. A moment later, however, a strong wind began to blow, all of her hair swirled around in the wind. Damien's fedora flew off his head, catching a Lintumon as it almost flew away until Ottemon caught it with one of his tentacles. All the Lintumon couldn't control how and where they tried to fly as the ears of the Pupmon flapped.

"Is this a usual wind?" Mitchell asked.

"No," Lagartomon said.

Buzzmon landed and Tweetmon grabbed onto Marcy.

"Get inside your little huts," Landon called to the small digimon. "You guys could get blown away in this wind. The gusts have to be getting up to the forty miles an hour. They helped all the small digimon into the huts that they hoped were sturdy enough to not get blown away.

"What's causing this?" Alex asked.

"A storm?" Doug asked.

"Something tells me this isn't natural," Vulpimon said, his fur all flying in the wind. "And this wind is really knotting up my long fur."

A few of the huts began to shake a bit. Mitchell and Marcy looked at them, a little bit of fear coursing through their eyes. "We have to do something to stop this," Tweetmon finally said. "These huts can't last against these winds much longer."

The noise of the wind picked up, a howling sound that almost reminded them of Coyomon. Alex grabbed onto Sikamon as the small digimon was having some difficulty moving of his own will.

"What's that!" Payton yelled, pointing at something approaching from a distance. They all turned to see what appeared to be a giant butterfly approaching quickly, flapping it's pink and silver wings in great sweeps.

"How can it fly in these winds?" Bloommon asked.

"Because, it's making these winds," Landon said. "It's one messed up version of the butterfly effect."

"The butterfly effect?" Doug asked. "Like the movie?"

"No," Payton said. "The butterfly effect says that the increasing force of when a butterfly flaps its wings creates a hurricane on the other side of the world."

"There must not be a lot of butterflies in your world," Lagartomon said.

"That or a lot of hurricanes," Ottemon said.

"What happens when a bird flaps its wings if a butterfly creates a hurricane?" Bloommon asked, looking at Tweetmon.

"It's not true," Damien said. "It's a proverb. Like, a small action in one place can cause a large change somewhere else."

"Not entirely accurate," Landon said. "It actually applies to chaos theory, but you don't need to know that unless you're studying theoretical physics."

"But, essentially, Damien's correct in this case," Ottemon pointed out.

"It's getting closer," Payton yelled. "And the wings are picking up."

"I know who that is," Bloommon said. "It's Flutterbymon, a butterfly-like digimon. But don't let her beautiful looks fool you, this digimon has a powerful attack and strong armored wings, creating winds up to one-hundred miles per hour, and its Tornado Twister can dizzy up its enemies long enough to be cut by the wing arrows."

"I don't get it," Sikamon said. "Flutterbymon has always been such a nice, peaceful digimon. What could have happened to her?"

"I guess we'll have to stop her," Mitchell said. "Let's take her down."

"Reptilian Razor Back!" Lagartomon yelled.

"Tuli Tail!" Vulpimon fired as well.

However, another gust of wing turned the attacks against them and they had to dodge their own attacks.

"I guess we have to take this right up to her," Buzzmon said and returned to the air. However, it seemed he couldn't fight the winds and spiraled out of control.

"Evolve," Doug said.

"On it!" the fly-digimon said. "Buzzmon evolve to... Hornetmon!"

Hornetmon flew against the wings, however not as fast as he would have liked. "Flutterbymon, I implore you to cease this reckless destruction attempt upon this village or I shall have to forcibly stop you."

"Tornado Twister!" was Flutterbymon's response, a raging tornado appearing at a flap of her wings. It pulled at Hornetmon, and while distracted, the butterfly soared at him, her wings spread out and a glint off them from the sun indicated she was about to strike again. "Wing Arrow!" Two arrows shot from her wings, hitting Hornetmon. He fell to the ground, devolving back to Buzzmon.

"Oh, no!" Marcy yelled as Flutterbymon was still coming at them, approaching lower now. At the rate the digimon was going, she would hit and destroy the front most of the huts, and possibly soar through the whole village, obliterating all the housing. "Stop!" Marcy yelled, running against the winds and standing in front of the village, her arms out. "I can't let you do this!"

Flutterbymon, however, wasn't listening and kept coming at Marcy. Marcy's eyes squeezed shut as Flutterbymon was sped up.

"Marcy, you have to get out of there," Tweetmon yelled, fighting the force of the winds.

"I have to do something!" Marcy yelled.

"Flutterbymon will hit you!" Mitchell yelled.

"So be it!"

"Marcy, no!" Tweetmon yelled. Marcy's digivice began to vibrate and glow. "Tweetmon evolved to...Avesmon!" Avesmon soared easily against the wings and caught one of Flutterbymon's metallic wings in each of her talons. She was a red, falcon-like digimon. One side of her head had some metal-plating, including a robotic eye while the edges of her wings were created of steel. Avesmon stopped Flutterbymon's attacks no more than four feet in front of Marcy, and with the flapping of wings over, so stopped the strong winds.

"Release me!" Flutterbymon demanded.

"Not a chance," Avesmon said. "With your wings immobilized, you can't create any winds."

"I can still do this," Flutterbymon yelled. "Wing Arrow!"

Avesmon threw Flutterbymon upward and the arrows flew straight up. Flutterbymon, thinking she had won, began to turn around.

"Razor Wing!" Avesmon yelled, pointing her wings at Flutterbymon, hundreds of metallic feathers flying forward and hitting the butterfly digimon.

She fell to the ground, but still continued to move, attempting to get up. "Is that all you have? You'll never take me out with that."

"You forgot one thing," Avesmon said, floating backwards.

"What's that?" Flutterbymon asked.

Avesmon returned to Tweetmon. "Your own arrows," she said, as the two arrows that Flutterbymon had shot off just moments before came falling back down, hitting Flutterbymon. She yelled, flashed black for a moment, and then passed out, a black disc slipping out of her back and disintegrating.

"Is she... dead?" Alex asked.

However, she shuddered again and opened her eyes. "What happened?" She looked around. "How did I get here?"

"You don't remember?" Sikamon asked.

"You only tried to destroy us and the village," Bloommon said.

"Oh, dear, I'm so sorry," she said, fluttering her wings lightly and lifting into the air lightly, no winds resulting from her. "It all seemed like a dream. One moment, I was flying from flower to flower for some nectar, and then there was a painful pinch on my back and all I remember is bits and pieces. I would never intentionally try to hurt anyone, especially not the Lintumon and Pupmon. They're the sweetest digimon on all of Harposa Island."

"I'll take it that means you've never been anywhere else, say, Earth before," Damien said.

"Never heard of it," Flutterbymon said.

"Don't worry about it," Ottemon said.

"We're just glad that you're not attempting to destroy the village anymore," Marcy said with a smile.

"No, thank _you_ for stopping me from making a grave mistake," Flutterbymon said. With that, Flutterbymon turned around and flew through the air.

"I wonder what made her act so awkward," Lagartomon said.

"Maybe that's what we're here to find out," Doug said. "I mean, classically, any story in which a subject, or in this case, subjects, are taken from their home world, there is a purpose for it to be done. Strictly speaking, it is highly possible that we are here for just that purpose."

"Strictly speaking, we're not story characters and this is real life," Landon said.

"No matter how unreal it may seem, he has a point," Payton said.

"Who does?" Landon and Doug asked in sync.

"Well, you both actually do," Payton said. "This is real life, but we were obviously brought here for a reason, and I don't think it was to perform experiments. Maybe there are other digimon that need our help. I mean, didn't Tweetmon help both the village and Flutterbymon today?"

"She did," Bloommon said.

"There could easily be more digimon in need of our help," Marcy said. "So, lets do our best to help them."

"I'm with you, Marcy," Tweetmon said.

"Agreed," Mitchell said. "Are we all for it?"

Everyone nodded.

"One question," Buzzmon said.

"What is it?" Doug asked.

"Could we eat first? I'm hungry again."


	5. Coralmon Wipes the Floor

**I know, it's been a while since I updated. But I have good reasons. First, the chapter wasn't done. I just finished it. Second, there's been a lot going on in my life. Two family deaths, and I got a job. But, here's the next chapter.

* * *

**

Coralmon Wipes the Floor

"How long have we been walking now?" Payton asked, barely pulling each foot forward to the next step.

"Long," Alex replied in a tired voice.

"How far would that be then?" Payton continued.

"Far," came Alex's voice again.

"Very far," Sikamon piped up from the ground as he walked next to Alex.

"Maybe we should do something to make walking not so dull," Doug said.

"What do you think we should do?" Bloommon asked.

"How about... we sing a song!"

"You had to ask," Damien said, sending a death glare at Bloommon.

"Hey, I think it's a fine idea," Marcy said. "Can anyone think of any songs?"

"I have one!" Doug shouted.

"Oh, this'll be exciting," Buzzmon said.

"No, this will be worth stuffing seaweed in my ears," Damien said.

"That can be arranged," Landon said.

Doug began a erratic, quick beat on his thighs and began a tune with a few off notes before yelling, "Aquarius!" There were several groans that Doug didn't hear as he had burst in a sharp version of Weird Al's "The Horoscope Song."

"_There's travel in your future when your tongue freezes to the back of a speeding bus;_

_Fill that void in your pathetic life by playing whack-a-mole seventeen hours a day._

_Pieces: Try to avoid any Virgos of Leos with the ebola virus;_

_You are the true lord-of-the-dance, no matter what those idiots at work say._"

As he continued on, Alex, Sikamon, and Buzzmon all laughed, while the other five children and their digimon partners kept groaning at each verse. Doug began dancing around as he sang the chorus.

Suddenly, or it seemed suddenly to Damien as he was doing his best to block out Doug's 'felony to all singers,' Doug slung an arm over Damien's shoulders.

"_Virgo: All Virgos are extremely friendly and intelligent_," he let go and pointed right at Damien face as he sang, "_except for you!_"

"That's it!" Damien yelled. "I can't take it any more! You guys are the most immature, rotten, obnoxious people or digimon I have ever met! Where's that dang Coyomon when you need something to eat someone, though I expect he'd probably spit you out, Doug!"

Doug, of course, had stopped singing from Damien's outburst and he, along with the twelve other travelers were just staring at Damien.

"How about you choose a song then," Ottemon suggested slowly, hoping to calm him partner down.

The vein popping out of Damien's head slowly disappeared as he took several deep breaths. "Or we could walk in silence."

Everyone nodded and began walking again. Until, though he was trying to hide it, Doug began humming the chorus of "The Horoscope Song."

Instead of bursting out in another angry rant, as expected, Damien burst out into song, and a much more agreeable song for the group at that.

"_Oh, what a night... Late December back in sixty-three, what a very special time for me, as I remember what a night._"

Surprising everyone, he had a very good voice and sung perfectly on key. He began to snap the beat as he continued on, not minding when Marcy and Mitchell both joined in.

"_Oh, what a night... you know I didn't even know her name, but I was never gonna be the same; what a lady, what a night._"

The rest of the kids and the digimon, whether they knew the song or not, began to bob to the beat and snapping their fingers, or whatever they could snap or clap in the case of several digimon along to the beat as well.

"_I felt a rush like a rolling bolt of thunder; spinning my head around and taking my body under. Oh what a night._"

Damien got a small applause when he hit the notes and words that no one else knew.

"You guys do know what that song is about, right?" Landon said once they were finished.

"Yes, but we best not mention it in front of your brother," Mitchell said.

"What?" Alex asked. "What's it about?"

"Good question," Doug said. "Come on, you can tell us."

"If you don't know, you're not mature enough to know it," Damien said.

Alex, Doug, and several digimon started thinking really hard on the subject.

"Hey, where'd you learn to sing like that?" Marcy asked after a few moments.

"What, me?" Damien asked.

"Yeah, you," Tweetmon said. "You were really good!"

"Oh, I've had lessons," Damien said. "I sing and dance and act, I've been doing it for a few years now. My aunt says I've got real talent and I could go far."

"So, is that where your 'mightier-than-thou' attitude comes from, then?" Payton asked.

"I don't have a 'mightier-than-thou' attitude," Damien said.

"Uh, not to burst your bubble," Ottemon said, "but you do."

"Aren't you supposed to defend me?" Damien asked, turning to the octopus digimon.

"From evil," Ottemon said. "Not from the truth."

"Gee, thanks for all your support, _buddy!_" Damien said, only a little bit of the snarl he was trying to hide coming through.

"My legs are hurting," Alex said about half an hour later.

"I see something up ahead," Payton said.

"Looks like a large building of some sort," Bloommon said.

"Like a department store," Doug said.

"It might have food," Alex shouted and then began to run, Sikamon just beside him.

"Alex, don't run off," Landon yelled and ran with Vulpimon, quickly catching up. The two brothers and their digimon partners arrived at the store a lot quicker than the others. Rather than waiting, the Pone brothers went inside.

When the others arrived, they somehow were not surprised to find that the store was completely empty, aside from the voices of Landon, Alex, Sikamon, and Vulpimon. It really was a department store, like a Target or a Meijers, so they traveled in.

"This is awesome!" Sikamon yelled as he and Alex flew by, Alex pushing a cart and Sikamon in the basket. Once going fast enough, Alex jumped on the bar just off the floor and the two continued to roll on, somehow managing to get the cart to turn as the aisle turned.

"Hey, guys, there's no one here," Landon said when the others found him in the food aisle. "Not that we have any money, or know what kind of money they use here."

"So we think we should take some anyway," Vulpimon said. "Or at least eat to our hearts content."

"Sounds like a plan to me," Lagartomon said and grabbed the closest package to him, opening it up and gobbling down the contents.

"You know, I think you're supposed to cook that," Bloommon said.

Lagartomon looked up at the flower digimon. "It does taste a little dry and crunchy and bland."

"Here, try this," Mitchell said, tossing the lizard digimon a bag of bread. Everyone began to open the packages and began eating.

"This is so good," Doug said, stuffing his face with cereal. "I forgot what real food tasted like."

"I wonder if this milk is okay or not," Damien questioned, opening a carton. He sniffed it before deciding it would be safe.

"Why is most of this food actually healthy?" Payton questioned.

"Is that a bad thing?" Bloommon asked. She was drinking bottled water.

"Not bad," Payton said. "It just doesn't taste as good."

"Yeah, you should really be more concerned about what it tastes like than your health," Damien said, sarcasm filling his voice and rolling his blue eyes. He was looking at the contents of all the food before deciding against it all. "Seriously, isn't any of this food low carb and low cal?"

"Maybe you should just eat right now and not care about calories," Landon said. He grabbed a water bottle, some bread, and some peanut butter before walking out of the aisle. "Alex!" he called.

"Anyway, just because something is low carb or low cal doesn't mean it's good for you," Payton said.

Damien rolled his eyes. "Whatever, I'm going to go explore more and see if there is anything else useful here."

As soon as Damien had walked away, with Ottemon following him, Marcy frowned. "Has anyone else noticed how all this food is either perishable or needs to be cooked?"

"So, it's not stuff we can carry around for a long time," Tweetmon said.

"Not that we have things to carry anything around in," Doug said. "Remember, the basket idea didn't really work."

"Hello," Payton said. "Department store! We can find bags."

"Great idea," Lagartomon agreed.

"Let's get looking," Bloommon said and followed Payton out of the aisle and looking around the store.

Alex and Sikamon were staring into the open doors that led into the back storage of the store when Landon and Vulpimon finally found them. "What's up with you two?" Landon asked.

"There's something in there," Alex said, pointing through the doors.

"What makes you say that?" Vulpimon asked.

"Be quiet," Sikamon said. "You'll hear it."

Vulpimon and Landon listened for a moment, and then heard what sounded like a low growl, but not that of anything awake. Whatever was through the doors sounded large, and it sounded asleep.

"Come on," Landon said, his voice considerably quieter. "Let's find the others and get out of here."

"Which of these goes better with my outfit?" Marcy asked looking between a blue bag and a green bag.

"How about this one," Payton said, tossing a red bag at Marcy.

"Gawd no," Marcy shook her head. "It's hideous and clashes with everything I'm wearing."

"It also carries much more than either of those will," Payton said. She had already chosen a black bag. It was about that time that Mitchell and Lagartomon walked into the aisle as well.

"Hey, girls, maybe you should try to find better walking shoes," Mitchell said.

Marcy looked down at her feet and sighed. "Fine, but it will so clash with my outfit." She grabbed the green bag she had been looking at, pulled it over her shoulder, and started to walk off.

Payton rolled her eyes at Marcy. "Seriously, who cares about clashing at times like these?"

"It's just the kind of person Marcy is," Lagartomon said.

"Annoying and self-centered?" Payton asked.

"Concerned about appearances," Mitchell said.

"No, it's how she distracts herself from what's happening," Bloommon said. "Putting a positive spin on everything. To her, this isn't all a burden, it's an adventure."

Mitchell smirked a bit. "You should still get new shoes, Payton," he said. He grabbed a bag, a bit down from where she had been looking.

"Doesn't that bag have stuff in it already?" Payton asked.

"Yeah," Mitchell said. "A tent." He grabbed another two, handed on to Lagartomon, who put it on. "We decided it might be nice to have definite shelter. These each can house four people. Doug and I figured that since most of the digimon are smaller than people, we can make it work."

"Do you know a lot about camping?" Bloommon asked Mitchell.

"Enough," he said. He moved to some Camelbak hydration packs, grabbing two of those. He looked at Payton and tossed her one of the packs. "You'll be more useful carrying water than whatever you can get into that bag. Now, change your shoes. We'll get Landon to carry a backpack with the food." He grabbed a rather large backpack made for camping, much bigger than Payton would have been able to handle if filled all the way.

Everyone gathered back at the food aisle about half an hour later. Mitchell gave Doug a tent bag, and everyone filled Landon's bag with all the food they could bring, that was, after packing it with an electric lantern and extra batteries. Mitchell gave all the people a flashlight that would slip into pockets, and then two mini flashlights that could clip to belt loops. Damien didn't find any of this acceptable when they handed him a bag that had several smaller bags with extra shirts, socks, and underwear for the boys, but accepted the fact that he would have to carry something. Marcy carried the same thing, but for the girls.

"Now, the key to making this all last is to not use it if we don't have to," Mitchell said. "I say that we spend the night here and leave tomorrow morning after we've eaten a filling breakfast. But, until then, let's just sit back and enjoy this place."

"Cool!" Alex yelled and he and Sikamon ran off again toward the toys.

"I'm going to read, in that case," Damien said and headed to the books.

"I bet this place has some Uno and playing cards," Doug said. "Might be something for us to take along. Light, small, and entertainment."

"Oh, no, I know what I'm doing," Marcy said. She grabbed Payton's wrist as Payton was about to follow Doug.

"Where are we going?" Payton asked, Tweetmon and Bloommon following the girls.

"Spa night," Marcy said. She found a few foot baths, massage chairs, and soon, had set up a mini spa in the changing room area, instructing the guys that they were not to enter on penalty of death.

Soon, Mitchell, Landon, and Doug were teaching their digimon partners and Ottemon how to play poker while Alex and Sikamon were racing remote cars. Damien, as he said he would do, had found a book and was reading, having found a small boom box and playing classical music that he was surprised he didn't recognize. However, between songs, he heard a growl coming from a dark hole in the store. He put the book down, turned down the music, and stood, approaching the wall. It was easy to tell that the darkness was from a doorway. Damien reached in without stepping out of the light and felt for a light switch. What he found was a beast digimon that he didn't stop to get a good look at before running out.

The beast, while it had been sleeping through all the noise the seven children and digimon had made, didn't sleep through the light. Its eyes opened, flashing yellow as its pupils quickly adjusted to the light. It stood, sniffed the air, and then roared.

"What was that?" Doug asked looking up from his hand, not noticing as Lagartomon peeked at his cards.

"I'm going to check it out," Landon said.

"Code for I'm going to collect Alex," Buzzmon said.

Landon and Vulpimon both gave a quick glare at the insect digimon before continuing on.

"Meanwhile, I'll find Damien," Ottemon said. "I do not feel safe with him so far from me."

It didn't take long, however, for them to find the noise. Apparent, the beast had smelt an odd odor and went to check it out. That was followed by two screams from the girls, and two attacks from Tweetmon and Bloommon.

"Pollen Punch!"

"Feather Flow!"

These just seemed to anger the beast. It was definitely a digimon of sorts. To Payton and Marcy, it looked like a purple gorilla wearing an apron.

"Tweetmon!" Marcy yelled, "Evolve!"

"On it!" the macaw-like digimon replied. "Tweetmon evolve to..." However, the bird digimon didn't evolve.

"What's wrong?" Payton yelled. There were curlers in her hand, and red nail polish on all but two of her toes.

"I don't feel the power," Tweetmon said. "Do you have your digivice, Marcy?"

Marcy's eyes widened. "I must have left it in the bag back where we left the guys."

"Who is that, anyway?" Payton asked.

"It's Clerkmon," Bloommon said. "The clerk of most stores in the digital world."

"Well, he looks angry," Tweetmon said. "Feather Flow."

"Pollen Punch."

Clerkmon, however, didn't seem to like being attacked, and retaliated. "Paper Bag Attack!" He suddenly pulled out two paper bags, throwing one at each digimon and the were both wrapped up.

"Reptilian Razorback!"

"Tuli Tail!"

"Buzzing Blasts!"

"Phosphoric Ink Spray!"

The four attacks hit the digimon, but bounced off him. "Paper Bag Attack!"

His attack hit Lagartomon, Buzzmon, and Ottemon while Vulpimon, more agile, was able to dodge it. Landon pulled out his digivice. "You'll have to evolve, Vulpimon!"

"Vulpimon evolve to... Zorromon!"

"Now that we're on even grounds, see if you can still take me," Zorromon said. "Flame Thrower!"

Clerkmon, however, jumped up, over the attack and grabbed onto a shelf. "You're over your limit!" he yelled and shot a shock wave at Zorromon, throwing the fox-digimon back, and he landed as Vulpimon again.

"May I suggest we leave?" Damien asked.

"Not without paying the price," Clerkmon said, and swung down, grabbing Damien.

"Let him go!" Ottemon yelled, his ink having destroyed the bag that the others all struggled with.

"Gladly," Clerkmon said and threw Damien up. Damien managed to grab onto a pipe so he would fall, but was otherwise left dangling and losing his grip.

"Damien!" Ottemon yelled. "I'll save you!"

"Just try," Clerkmon said.

"Watch me," Ottemon said. Damien's grip loosened and he yelled. "Ottemon evolve to... Coralmon!"

Coralmon was yet another octopus-digimon, this one about five times the size of Ottemon. However, he was white and most of him was in a giant glass bowl that was upside-down, the water not leaking out at all. The eight tentacles of Coralmon were all blue and pink ringed.

Coralmon reached up with a tentacle and gently wrapped around Damien just as he lost his grip. Clerkmon, however, was about to attack again.

"You are over your limit!" However, this time, the shock wave didn't hit the intended target as it bounced off the glass tank and bounced back at Clerkmon. He fell back and passed out. A black disk slipped out of him and disintegrated.

"He's not going to attack again, is he?" Doug asked.

The paper bags that wrapped up the other digimon quickly loosened and they all got out. However, Clerkmon sat up.

The seven tentacles of Coralmon not holding Damien all hardened into what looked like coral. "Don't make me give you a seaweed slap!"

Clerkmon, however, looked freaked out. "What... what's going on? Why are you in my store?"

"You don't remember attacking us?" Payton asked.

"No, I just remember a pinch in my back while I went into back stock looking for something," Clerkmon said. He looked around. "And I see you've been helping yourselves to my merchandise."

"We're sorry," Mitchell said. "It's just that, well, no one was here-"

"No worries," Clerkmon said. "I've been trying to get fired. I hate this store. If you steal enough stuff, I'm sure to be. Not to mention, sleeping on the job. Anyway, you did help me, so I guess you deserve all the stuff you're using and taking."

Coralmon, satisfied with the situation, devolved back to Ottemon, ending up completely wrapped around an annoyed Damien. "You can let me go now, you know."

"I'm fine, thank you," Ottemon replied.

Damien frowned. "I'm going to go to bed now." He walked off, Ottemon still wrapped around him.

"I think he's warming up to the slimy guy," Vulpimon said.

"And about time too," Buzzmon said.

"That's him when he likes someone?" Clerkmon asked. "I'd hate to see what he's like to those he actually dislikes."

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**Please review!**


	6. Fleurmon Blooms

**I know it has been forever, but I currently have two jobs and I wasn't sure how I wanted this chapter to really play out until about two nights ago. As to concerns about Sikamon having not evolved yet, he will soon (I am glad I didn't have him evolve with the others because I changed what his rookie form between when I first posted and now). Once again, I'm going to ask who your favorite characters are, which ones are developing faster or slower in your opinion. Who do you know the most or least about. I know Damien is a favorite to a few people, but who else do you like (I must admit, writing Damien is a lot of fun, I especially like the last bit about him and Ottemon from the last chapter).

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Fleurmon Blooms

The next few days for the Digidestined and their digimon partners were relatively calm. They had bread and lettuce for sandwiches at almost every meal, which Damien complained about to no end; they didn't run into any more digimon except for remeeting Flutterbymon dusting some flowers in a field of blooms, and this was where they decided to set up camp for a few nights. It was near a stream for clean water, fish in a lake, and had other edible plants and fruits in the area. As well, it was near the woods, so they could get wood for a fire every night easily. Well, that and Marcy said it was pretty which sealed the deal.

The tent arrangements came quickly. Payton, Marcy, Tweetmon, and Bloommon all squeezed into one tent. Landon, Vulpimon, Alex, Sikamon, Doug, and Buzzmon got a second tent. That left Mitchell, Lagartomon, Damien, and Ottemon in the third. Because Lagartomon and Ottemon were the two biggest digimon in the group, that tent was always more crammed than even the tent with six inhabitants, which led to Damien complaining, which led to Mitchell and Lagartomon always taking the first watch shift so that he could escape Damien's complaints.

On one of these nights, Payton joined Mitchell by the fire. As Mitchell had said, they had to conserve what they could with the flashlights and the lantern, so they always built fires when they had the wood.

"What are you still doing up?" Mitchell asked when she sat down on the boulder that either Landon or Doug had brought to their camp the day before.

"Can't sleep," she said.

"Why not?" Mitchell asked.

Lagartomon was on the edge of the woods, not too far away, but out of range for their voices as they were speaking quietly so as to not wake the others. The lizard-digimon was searching for trees that had edible nuts or seeds.

"I don't know," she said. She paused a moment before continuing. "Have you noticed how neither of our digimon have evolved past their second form?"

"Rookie," Mitchell said. "And Sikamon is still in-training."

Patyon nodded. "Yeah, that's true. I was just wondering why it's been like that."

"Well, I was considering that the other day," Mitchell said. "And, I've noticed that in order for a digimon to evolve to its next level a first time, its partner is almost always in danger. I mean, they almost all evolved to Rookie when we were running from Mammothmon. Pupmon evolved to Vulpimon and then Zorromon when Coyomon was looking at Landon as a meal. Buzzmon when Doug was hit by Slithermon. Tweetmon when Marcy was standing against Flutterbymon. Even when Damien was hanging by the rafters after Clerkmon threw him up there is when Ottemon evolved."

"What does that say about us?" Payton asked.

"What does that say about the others?" Mitchell asked. "I'm not sure about how you feel, but I think that being the ones that stay safe shows slightly better character."

Payton smiled and laughed a bit. "I guess that's true, isn't it?" She then sighed again. "We've been here for a little over a week now. Do you think our parents are concerned?"

"Of course they are," Mitchell said. "Well, that's if my father's even taken time out of his work to take a phone call from my grandma. To him, he'd be more concerned if it was my brother or sisters."

"What makes you say that?" Payton asked.

"My older siblings perform in rodeos," Mitchell said. "My younger sister is a pageant queen. To any Texan, you've got perfect children in them. Me, I play soccer and baseball. Two sports that would make any parent proud to have a star player, unless that parent was a Texan."

"You play soccer and baseball?" Payton asked. "My parents would adore you. My parents, they'll use my disappearance to help their careers along. They'll have a few weeks where they will pretend to drop their work to help the search teams and be worried about me, but after they don't find me, they'll return to work, but still keep their hope open. It'll get them family votes as well as sympathy votes. My mother may even make a play for Governor next term. However, truthfully, they'll be glad I'm gone because they won't have to worry about how their daughter is going to embarrass them at the next banquet or rally or whatever. And when we do get home, they can blame my personality on what happened to us."

"I see you're more optimistic than I am," Mitchell said.

"Why's that?" Payton asked.

"You said _when_ we get home," Mitchell said. "I'm thinking _if_."

"Well, I guess I do see us eventually finding our way back," Payton said. "Or someone finding us." She sighed again. "I just really want to go home. I don't even care about art camp any more."

"That's too bad," the voice of Alex came from behind them. The two older children turned around to see Alex and Sikamon had crawled out of the tent they shared with Landon, Vulpimon, Buzzmon, and Doug.

"What are you doing up, Little Man?" Mitchell asked.

"I'm up to take watch," he said.

"Hey, you don't have to do that," Lagartomon, who had finally returned said. "Mitchell and I have it handled."

"We want to be able to help," Alex said with an odd air of determination. "And Sikamon and I are the only ones who never took watch."

"Not true," Payton said. "Damien slept through his watch the other night, leaving Ottemon all alone."

"We just don't want to be useless," Sikamon said, hopping to face different directions.

"You're not useless," Lagartomon said. "Who put that ridiculous notion into your heads?"

"I'll give you one guess," Payton said. "His name start with Dami and end in en."

"It wasn't him," Alex said.

"I don't think Landon would feel comfortable with you taking a watch by yourselves, Alex," Mitchell said.

Alex's eyes began to water. "But, I want to help," he said, trying to keep from crying.

"We know we're not as strong or as old," Sikamon said. "But we've got the determination that it takes."

"Oh, you know we trust you two," Lagartomon said. "But, if something does come up, we need someone with a little more fighting experience to respond immediately. Your Bubble Blow wouldn't do much if, say, Coyomon returned."

"We can handle it," Alex said. "It's not fair that we don't have to do any of the work."

"Would you keep your trap shut, pipsqueak?" Damien's voice came from inside his tent. He didn't even bother climbing out to say it. "Your breaking into my sleep."

"How about this, Alex," Mitchell said. "You can keep watch with me."

"But you need sleep," Alex said. "You take watch every night."

"I have a good reason to," Mitchell said. "If you and Sikamon take watch with Lagartomon and me a few times, we can evaluate your progress and then we'll start letting you take your own watches. How does that sound?"

Alex nodded, wiping the tears from his eyes.

Payton stood up after a moment. Sikamon noticed her turning toward the forest first.

"Where are you going?" the small digimon asked.

"I'm just going to take a walk," Payton said.

"Alone?" Alex asked.

"I won't go far," Payton said.

"We'll go with you," Sikamon said. Alex and Sikamon were immediately by Payton's side.

"I'll get Bloommon," Lagartomon said. "Doubt she'll be too happy if you wander away without her."

Payton nodded and waited while Lagartomon slipped into the girls' tent. A moment later, there were a few yells, followed by Lagartomon getting thrown out of the tent. "She's coming," Lagartomon said looking up, having landed at Payton's feet.

Bloommon glided gracefully out of the tent and looked at Payton. "Why aren't you sleeping, Payton?" she asked.

"I'm just not tired," Payton said. She began watching, Alex, Sikamon, and Bloommon all falling into step on either side of her.

"Alex, why don't you stay here," Payton said. "I'm sure Landon would prefer it."

"Yes, Landon would," Alex said. "But I want to go with you."

Payton took a breath to tell him that he should stay again, but Bloommon beat her to talking. "In that case, we would love the company of you two."

Sikamon and Alex both smiled brightly and perked up in their steps. Seeing their beaming faces, Payton couldn't help but to let them accompany her.

Their walk turned out to be half an hour, so Payton was almost afraid of what Landon's reaction would be if he was awake for his watch. However, when they returned to the field, there didn't seem to be anyone on watch and the fire had turned into mere embers.

"What happened?" Sikamon asked as they confirmed that the tents were empty as well.

"I don't know, but I think we should find out," Payton said. "Are there any clues?"

"I think this is one," Alex said looking at the ground he was standing in. Payton couldn't see what he meant, so she turned on a flashlight. The ground was filled with square-shaped imprints, almost like footprints.

"What could have feet this big?" Alex asked.

"More like foot," Bloommon said. "The tracks seem to indicate that it was hopping rather than walking."

They followed the prints back into the woods and finally came to what appeared to be an amphitheater in the forest.

"There are too many tracks here to distinguish which way it went," Payton said.

"That just means where' in the right area," Bloommon said.

Sikamon stuck his nose in the air and sniffed a few times, then took off running. "Follow me!" The small digimon ran around back of the amphitheater and to a row of five boxes, smaller than the ones that made tracks. Each box had a twisting handle on the side.

"Oh, I love these," Alex said. He began spinning the handle and hummed along with the melody. "I made one of these go off in my brother Roger's face once, and he was really scared. Landon and Jeff still make fun of him for- WAH!" Alex yelled when the box opened and instead of a clown coming out, Tweetmon appeared.

"Oh, lord, Tweetmon!" Payton gasped. "What happened?"

"I can hardly remember," Tweetmon said. "I was still asleep when it began, and it all happened so quickly."

The other boxes began to wiggle and it sounded like the other digimon were in them. Payton, Bloommon, Alex, and Sikamon each took and box and wound until Buzzmon, Vulpimon, Lagartomon, and Ottemon were freed as well.

"So, who can actually say what happened?" Bloommon asked once they were all free.

"It was Jollymon," Vulpimon said. "I don't know how he snuck up on us so quietly, but suddenly he appeared and captured all of us in these boxes and he took Landon and the others as prisoners for his show."

"His show?" Alex asked.

"Jollymon is a performer," Ottemon said. "He uses string puppets to put on shows, and he's always looking for new puppets."

"But he's not known for kidnapping anyone to turn into puppets," Buzzmon said.

Music was suddenly playing from the front of the stage, so they all traveled around to see what it was. A box, much like the boxes the digimon had been trapped in, was on stage, the handle winding on its own. Suddenly, it burst open with a blast of confetti and a clown-like doll came out. The torso of a clown was very human clown like, and taking bows, but the waist and down was just a coiled spring.

"And now, for my greatest performance ever," Jollymon announced to an empty crowd. "The Digidestined's final battle against Mefistomon!"

With that, the curtain rose and the five captured Digidestined appeared, each of them with strings around their wrists and knees like they were puppets. And there was a sixth puppet, though this one seemed to be an actual puppet. However, it showed a dark figure, with a billowing black cloak a red horrific face, and coal black eyes.

"Who is that?" Payton asked.

"The jack-in-the-box?" Bloommon questioned. "I thought it would be obvious that that is Jollymon."

"No, the puppet," Payton said. "Who is that supposed to be?"

"Mefistomon," Bloommon said. "I don't know much about him except that he's supposed to be one bad dude."

Before they could talk anymore, however, the show began. Jollymon, pulling on strings, had the Digidestined 'walking.'

"Look at us, the Digidestined, walking around on Harposa Island," Jollymon imitated Mitchell's voice very poorly while throwing his hands around.

"We have no idea where we are or what we're doing," this time it was Landon he had speak, not caring when one of Landon's hands smacked Doug's face.

"I am grouchy and my feet hurt." The digimon, Payton, and Alex couldn't help but smirk that it was Damien's character speaking.

"Oh no, who is that?" Marcy was pointing ahead.

Suddenly, the Mefistomon puppet came to life and began moving. "I am Mefistomon, the dark devil digimon, most evil of all digimon. Though you have been brought here to defeat me it shall be me who destroys you." The puppet suddenly produced a scythe and held it up as if to actually strike the five Digidestined.

"Oh, no, Bloommon!" Payton cried out, jumping to her feet, revealing to Jollymon that they were there.

"On it," Bloommon replied without Payton having to say anything more. "Pollen Punch!" She hit the Mefistomon puppet, which was thrown off the strings.

"No!" Jollymon jumped in front of them. "You're ruining my show!"

"That's fine," Payton said. "It would have tanked anyway, it sucked."

"String attack!" Jollymon yelled, shooting strings at Payton.

"Buzzing Blasts!"

"Tuli Tail!"

The two attacks from Buzzmon and Vulpimon managed to destroy the strings.

"Cut the other's down," Payton yelled running to avoid being in the line of fire.

"On it," Tweetmon said as she and Lagartomon ran to the stage. "Feather Flow!"

"Reptilian Razor Back!"

The sharp flying objects from the two digimon cut down the strings holding the five children and they all dropped to the stage floor.

"Get away from my puppets!" Jollymon yelled.

He turned back toward his stage, but Payton grabbed a stick and threw it at him, allowing the digimon time to each get to their partner to drag them to safety.

"String attack!" Jollymon yelled.

Payton yelled as the attack was flying at her, this time there was no one to stop the attack from hitting her.

"Payton, No!" Bloommon yelled, running toward Payton. Payton's red digivice began to glow and vibrate. "Bloommon evolve to... Fleurmon!"

Fleurmon was a beautiful, birdlike digimon, tall and thin, like Bloommon had been, but colored blue and orange, and with a huge fanned out peacock tail made up of at least hundreds of multi-colored flowers. "Petal Blaster!" Fleurmon called out and struck Jollymon with thousands of petals coming from her wings, tail, and body. The attack hit Jollymon and threw the Jack-in-the-box digimon back several feet, knocking him onto his side.

"Payton, are you alright?" Fleurmon asked.

She just nodded, staring at Fleurmon. "Wow, you're so amazing."

"I know," Fleurmon said. "But only because of you." She turned toward the struggling Jollymon trying to right itself. "Let's put an end to this. Petal Blaster!" Once again, the energy filled petals all struck Jollymon. Jollymon yelled, and this time, a dark energy left him, as well as a black disc that disintegrated after leaving his body. Jollymon fell down, totally wiped out.

Fleurmon devolved to Bloommon and then she and Payton ran to where the other digimon had dragged the Digidestined.

"Are they okay?" Payton asked.

"I think so," Vulpimon said.

"Try to wake them," Alex said.

"I'm surprised the fall to the stage didn't wake them," Ottemon said.

"Not to mention the sounds of the battle," Sikamon said.

All the digimon tried shaking their partners awake. Doug was the first to show any signs of being awake. "Go away, mother, just ten more minutes."

"I'm not your mother, Doug," Buzzmon said. "I'm your digimon."

"Huh?" Doug opened his eyes. "Whoa, how did we get here?"

"You guys were attacked and dragged off," Payton said.

"Good thing we went for that midnight walk," Bloommon said.

Once they were all awake again, and most of them crabby, they all turned to Jollymon.

"Is he dead?" Alex asked.

"No, he's just really tired," Lagartomon said.

"I wonder what happened to him," Tweetmon questioned. "Jollymon is usually so happy and cheerful and..."

"Jolly?" Landon asked.

"Exactly!"

"It was a black disc," Payton said. "I saw what looked like one of those old floppy discs slip out of his body when Fleurmon's attack hit him, just before he passed out."

"You know, now that you mention it, I think something fell out of Flutterbymon as well," Marcy said.

"And Clerkmon," Doug said.

"I'm starting to see a pattern here," Buzzmon said. "A normally good digimon goes bad, we fight, and a black disc falls out, and digimon returns to normal."

"So, some one is corrupting all these good digimon," Marcy said, a slight frown on her face.

"I hope Jollymon is going to be okay," Bloommon said. "I would hate to think that I seriously hurt him."

Right then, the digimon groaned and moved. He looked up and around. "What happened?"

"You were infected by an evil virus of some sort," Landon said.

"But you're okay now," Payton said.

"Except that you tried to turn us into puppets and jack-in-the-boxes," Damien muttered under his breath.

"I what?" Jollymon asked, before he chucked.

"Like I said," Tweetmon mentioned. "He's jolly."

"You saved me, then?" Jollymon asked. "I must make it up to you."

"No, really, it's okay," Mitchell said.

"Nonsense," Jollymon cried. A moment later, he was at the stage again, and this time, he was using only real puppets. Despite being a single digimon, he put on a fabulous show of good versus evil, staring puppets of the Digidestined, and defeating the dark powers of Harposa Island. After he had finished, the Digidestined and their digimon partners all applauded, except for Damien, who was looking away and muttered something about lack of facial expressions, but anyone knew it was taking his all to pretend that he hadn't enjoyed the show just as much as any of the others.


	7. Dinomon Swings in for the Save

**I know it's been forever, but I have good reason... okay, I really don't. But I kind of like how I ended this one. Not exactly the happy ending of the other chapters. Oh well, read, enjoy, review.

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Dinomon Swings in for the Save

"I don't see why we couldn't have just stayed at the campsite we were at," Damien said as the Digidestined were hiking through a forest.

"Because we now know what our mission is here," Mitchell said. "We have to protect the digimon here from these black discs, and we've decided it would be better to find the source of these discs than to sit back and wait until we get attacked again and not know if the digimon is under the influence of a black disc or not."

"Actually, you decided that," Payton said. "Some of us aren't as inclined to throw ourselves into the path of danger as quickly."

"Doug agreed with me," Mitchell said.

"Doug also thinks that this is just a video game that we got sucked into," Damien said.

Mitchell kept walking for a moment until he realized that everyone had stopped except him. He turned around to look at the group, surprised that even Lagartomon had stopped. "What's wrong?" he questioned.

"Maybe we shouldn't be searching for danger, Mitchell," Landon said. "After all, we were almost all caught the other day by Jollymon. Some of us have almost been turned into lunchmeat."

"I don't know about you, but I don't look good in Oscar Mayer packaging," Marcy said.

"It's just not a good idea to be heading toward the danger," Lagartomon said. "It's..."

"Stupid," Damien said.

Mitchell stared at the group for a moment. "I just don't want to sit around doing nothing while there is good we could be doing," he said. "And I thought you'd all feel the same."

"We never said we don't want to do good," Bloommon said.

"We just don't want to walk into obvious danger," Vulpimon said.

"But, we don't even know where the danger is," Mitchell said.

The rest of them were quiet for a moment. It was true that they didn't know where the danger was coming from.

"For all we know, whoever is behind these discs is after us," Mitchell continued. "If we keep moving, we might be evading him. It's true that I want to find out who is behind this evil and stop them, but I want to do that on my terms, not his."

"Or hers," Payton said. Everyone turned to stare at her. "It could be an evil female."

"Riiight," Doug said and patted her on the head. "I'm sure that it's a girl who is trying to destroy this world."

"Stop that now before I have to hurt you," Payton said. Doug immediately backed off, knowing that if Payton wanted to hurt him, she easily could.

"So I suggest we put it to a vote," Buzzmon said. "First to reach seven wins."

"Well, we know where Mitchell stands," Bloommon said. "Landon?"

"I say we get back to camping," Landon said. "Looking for someone or something trying to kill us will eventually get us killed."

"I'm with Landon," Vulpimon said.

"Me too," Marcy said. Tweetmon nodded to show she supported Landon's plan as well.

"Well, I say that no good will come of sitting around," Doug said. "We have to keep moving if we want to ever save the world."

"You know, he _does _ have a point," Payton said. "Moving might not be such a bad plan."

"Plus, if anything, this isn't a good place to set up camp," Buzzmon said. "Too many trees to set up the tents, and too easy to start a forest fire."

"Then let's head back to where we were camped and stay put there," Damien said.

"It was in a prime location," Ottemon said.

"We can't just camp there forever," Bloommon said. "Especially if we ever want to help them get home." Bloommon gestured to the humans.

"If we keep moving, we could find what we need to help the other digimon," Lagartomon said, nodding at the idea.

"Then it's a tie," Landon said. "Six against six."

"We haven't voted yet," Alex said about him and Sikamon.

Landon sighed. "Alex, this is a very important decision we're trying to make. It takes a lot of maturity and understanding."

"It's not like you understand what's going on here either," Alex said. "I vote we keep moving."

"That's seven," Tweetmon said.

"Make that eight," Sikamon said.

"Majority wins," Doug said with a grin.

"Don't talk to me," Landon growled as he picked up the bag he had put down.

"Is he always that grumpy?" Buzzmon asked Alex.

"Not usually," Alex said.

"Could have fooled me," Lagartomon said.

"Let's keep going this way," Mitchell said, heading in the general direction of the large mountain in the middle of the island.

"Why are we going this way?" Damien asked.

"Because no one has any better ideas," Mitchell said. With that, he turned and continued walking.

"Thanks for asking, by the way," Marcy mumbled as they all began to follow.

As the day progressed, the group remained silent, only a few whispers passing between certain humans and their digimon partner. As the sun began to set, Landon stopped the moment they came to a good camping area, not even talking. Silently, they all set up camp, Damien, and Ottemon searching for food in one direction while Payton, Alex, Bloommon and Sikamon searched in a different direction.

As usual, Mitchell took first watch while everyone else retired for the night.

"We covered a lot of ground today," Lagartomon mentioned, sitting by the fire to keep warm.

"Not enough," Mitchell said coldly. He wasn't by the fire, instead, he sat on a large boulder and was staring up at the mountain.

"What has you so fascinated about that peak," the lizard-digimon asked after Mitchell was silent for several minutes again.

"I don't know," Mitchell admitted. "I just get a feeling..."

"What sort of feeling?" Lagartomon asked.

Mitchell shrugged. He was just continued to stare at the mountain. "Remember the show Jollymon put on for us?" he finally said.

"Very well," Lagartomon said. "It was just last night."

"Remember how there was no real evil shown? Just mentioned? Jollymon just used a dark curtain as representation?"

"Uh... did he?" Lagartomon asked. "No, he had the Mefistomon puppet that Bloommon destroyed."

Mitchell turned to the lizard-digimon. "Uh... what?"

"Oh, wait, that was when you were still passed out," Lagartomon mumbled in thought.

Mitchell stared at the digimon, then back at the mountain. "Do you think that the evil Jollymon mentioned is up there?"

Lagartomon looked at Mitchell, then at the mountain. "Is that why you want to go there so bad?" Mitchell nodded. Lagartomon frowned as best he could, looking at Mitchell. "I don't think it's a good idea then."

Mitchell looked at his partner in surprise. "Why not?"

"If you want to take on this evil head on, I support you," Lagartomon said. "And I'll be beside you every step of the way. But to take the others into that isn't fair for them."

Mitchell turned to the sleeping group of kids and digimon and knew Lagartomon was right. "You'll go with me, even if it's just you and me?" he asked. He turned back to his digimon partner. Lagartomon nodded. Mitchell stood up, unsnapped the knapsack with the few medical supplies, leaving it next to Landon in the tent. He then grabbed a stick and poked Damien awake it the other tent.

"Wha-?" the dark-haired boy asked.

"Wake up," Mitchell said. "Your turn for watch."

"Why me?" Damien asked. "Doesn't Landon or Doug usually take second watch?" Ottemon had opened his eyes and was stretching. "You just don't want to have to deal with Landon after what happened this morning with the vote."

The older boy glared at Damien sharply for a moment. "Just do it," Mitchell said. He then walked out.

Damien noticed this and looked at Mitchell as he too crawled out of the tent.

Mitchell threw another log on the fire. "If it starts to go down, just throw another log on," he said. He then began walking away. Lagartomon was by his side.

"Where are you going?" Damien asked.

"Just on a walk," Mitchell said. "Don't worry."

"Wasn't," Damien mumbled as he sat down and began poking the fire embers with a stick.

Once they were a ways away from camp that Mitchell was using a flashlight to walk by, Lagartomon looked at him. "Is that why you woke up Damien, because you knew he wouldn't wake the others when we don't return?"

Mitchell nodded. "They won't notice we're going until morning, unless Ottemon brings it up. By then, we'll be too far gone."

"When are we going to sleep?" Lagartomon asked.

"When we have to," Mitchell said. He mostly walked in silence, but produced two apples, handing one to his digimon partner so they could both eat something as they continued on toward the mountain, before they actually hit too much of an incline.

The sun was about two hours away from rising when Mitchell stopped, motioned to a tall tree with a lot of branches and began climbing it. As soon as he found himself a thick sturdy branch, he leaned against the trunk and closed his eyes. Lagartomon followed his example.

Just as the first few rays of sun began to rise, who had been surprised to be woken by Damien, woke up Landon for the final watch. Still tired, Landon did not notice the knapsack next to him as he crawled out of the tent. He stoked the fire once more, noticing the supply of fish that it seemed Ottemon must have caught. Pulling a swiss army knife from his pocket, he set to work to prepare them for breakfast.

Once the sun was fully up and Landon had prepared a full breakfast for everyone, he started waking people up. After about ten minutes, everyone was sitting around the dying fire, eating fish and various fruits.

It was Alex who noticed that Mitchell and Lagartomon were missing. Upon questioning it, everyone began to look around.

"Damien, Ottemon, do you know where they are?" Bloommon asked.

"Why would I?" Damien asked.

"You _do_ share a tent with them," Payton mentioned.

"Now that you mention it, I haven't seen them since they woke Damien and me for our watch shift," Ottemon said. "I went to fish pretty quickly, and I just didn't think on it."

"Where do you think they went?" Vulpimon asked.

"I really don't care," Landon said. "If they want to ditch us, that's up to them. Let them be out on their own out there. But if they come back, we have no obligation to let them join us again."

"They went to the mountain," Alex said, staring up at the large mountain.

"What do you mean?" Sikamon asked.

Marcy gasped. "You don't think that they decided to find that evil and take it on, just the two of them?" she questioned, her eyes darting between the others.

"They didn't ditch us," Tweetmon said. "They went to keep us out of harm's way."

Marcy and Tweetmon both stood and began running toward the mountain.

"Where are you going?" Landon called to them.

"No, they're right," Doug said. He and Buzzmon looked at one another, then began to follow.

"We'll find them and bring them back," Buzzmon said as they were leaving the camp area.

"In the mean time, we should pack up camp," Payton said after a few moments. She crawled into the girls' tent to pull everything out of it. Landon nodded.

Alex, however, was staring after Marcy, Tweetmon, Doug, and Buzzmon. "No, we should help," he said.

Landon sighed, but it was Bloommon who knelt down in front of the small boy. "We are helping," the flower-digimon explained. "We need all this stuff here. We will catch up to the others. Mitchell and Lagartomon are both very capable of taking care of themselves, and will be fine until the others catch up to them. This way, when we all reunite, we'll still have all the stuff we need to take care of ourselves."

Alex nodded. "Sikamon and I can go get water," he said.

"That would be very helpful," Vulpimon said, dragging out the two Camelbaks they had gotten from the department store. Alex took them and he and Sikamon went to the water, not aware as Vulpimon followed them from Landon's look, making sure they were safe.

By the time they returned, Landon, Payton, and Bloommon all had the tents on their backs. Landon had found the medical knapsack and clipped it onto his hips, to the side, just like Mitchell had had it. Because the others had all gone, Damien had two bags, Ottemon had a bag, and Alex would have to carry one of the Camelbaks, while the other was strapped to Vulpimon.

Mitchell and Lagartomon had woken up with the sun and set off again. Now, however, their hike was a bit more difficult as the incline was very steep. There was no clear path up the mountain, and more and more, Mitchell was using his hands to grab onto rocks or tree branches to help keep pulling himself up more. He was just glad that he was used to climbing rock walls and going on hikes with his older siblings.

It wasn't too long that they found that they had to climb straight up. When they got to this point, Mitchell and Lagartomon had to help one another, the lizard-digimon more than once catching Mitchell as the boy almost fell. Luckily, after forty feet or so, they came to a ledge. They still had a ways up until they would reach the top, but at least they had found a good spot to rest. As well, there was a small stream of water coming from within the mountain, dripping down the side, and into a small pool of water that apparently slipped back into the mountain.

"There might be some caves in the mountain," Mitchell said after he and Lagartomon had had their fill of water.

"You think whoever is sending out these black disks might be operating from within it?" Lagartomon asked.

"I'm not sure," Mitchell said. "But it might be a good idea to explore all our options."

"So, we start to search for a way in?" Lagartomon asked, and began circling along the ledge.

"In or an easier way up," Mitchell said. "Whichever we find first." They began walking along the ledge, sometimes having barely enough room to slide along with their backs against the rest of the mountain, sometimes enough room for them to walk side by side. Mitchell had thought they were farther up than they appeared to be and was surprised to find that they'd only made it about half way around after about an hour. However, the incline up was a lot less steep than on the other side.

"This is a good a place as any to start our ascent up, I guess," Lagartomon said.

Mitchell nodded and began forward. However, they hadn't gone more than twenty feet when they heard a loud, high squawk behind them. They turned to see a silver colored bird flying at them at high speeds.

"What is that?" Mitchell asked, turning to Lagartomon.

"That's Falcomon," Lagartomon replied. "A usually revered bird digimon because of its deep understanding of the world around it and its connection with nature. But it's still deadly with its Silver Talon attack."

"That's nice," Mitchell's voice became a bit sarcastic. "But is it dangerous?"

"Usually not," Lagartomon said. "But apparently right now seems to be an exception."

"Why is it always the exception when they're coming our way?" Mitchell questioned. He looked up then down. It was a bit too far of a climb either way, but he figured that they might as well try to get as high as they could while they still had the chance. Maybe... just maybe... they could reach the top before it reached them. Mitchell began to get a little reckless as he climbed, going for speed and not caring about his own safety.

"Slow down, Mitchell," Lagartomon called. "You're going to fall at that rate."

"You hurry up," Mitchell called, noticing Falcomon had just moved into a dive aimed in their general direction. Suddenly, Mitchell noticed a silver light forming at the bird-digimon's feet.

"Silver Talon!" it yelled, and the attack hit just next to Mitchell, almost throwing the boy off the entire mountain.

"Mitchell!" Lagartomon yelled. Falcomon was closer now and was charging up again. However, before the attack was shot, another voice sounded, this one much more pleasing to the boy's ears.

"Razor Wing!"

Mitchell turned and spotted Avesmon, Marcy holding tightly to her digimon's large leg, with Doug on the other.

"Avesmon!" Mitchell called out. "Marcy! Doug!"

"Couldn't let you have all the fun," Doug called out as Hornetmon flew up and began to fend off Falcomon so Avesmon could drop the two humans down on the mountain top. The large bird-digimon then flew off to help Hornetmon as Marcy and Doug help Mitchell and Lagartomon climb the last few feet.

As soon as they were all standing safely on the top, Marcy's hand flew faster than could be seen, slapping Mitchell's smiling face.

"Ow!" Mitchell took a step back. "What in the world was that for."

"How... how could you?" Marcy yelled at him. "You'd think we'd just let you go? That we wouldn't worry?" There were tears in her blue eyes as she spoke.

"Silver Talon!"

A loud squawk was heard from the battle ensuing. and Marcy gasped loudly as Avesmon began dropping. "No, Avesmon!" The peak they were standing on shook as the bird-digimon crash-landed on the ledge below from where Mitchell and Lagartomon had just climbed from.

Not a moment later, Hornetmon was thrown in their direction, causing them to all jump out of his way, and Doug to grab his digimon's arm as he almost fell off their peak. Hornetmon attempted to stand, but fell to one knee.

"I fear that my exhaustion is too much," Hornetmon said. "I will not be able to slay this beast on my own. I will require the help of another."

However, they didn't have time to search for this help as Falcomon was closing in, gearing up for another Silver Talon attack.

Mitchell did the only thing he could think of, and that was to separate himself as much as he could from the others and call Falcomon's attention. "Yo, Bird Brain, you think you're tough stuff, don't you!"

"Mitchell!" the others all yelled as the attack was shot off at him. He dodged, but the side he was on began to slip and he couldn't quite keep on as the rocks began to slip.

"Mitchell!" Lagartomon yelled, jumping to save his partner. Mitchell's orange digivice began to vibrate and glow. "Lagartomon evolve to... Dinomon!"

Suddenly, though still smaller than even Hornetmon, Dinomon began running with the falling rocks, grabbed Mitchell, careful not to puncture the human with his now long claws, and was scaling the mountain again with ease. He placed Mitchell down between Marcy and Doug.

Dinomon looked to be a lime green raptor, with an obvious metal tail and metal claws. The teeth were sharp and the orange eyes were calculating. The underbelly was orange with yellow spots, and the legs were large and powerful. Dinomon skillfully jumped at Falcomon, and landed on the bird-digimon's back. "Raptor's Wrath!" Dinomon yelled and struck Falcomon's back. The black threw the bird from the sky, landing on the peak, where the kids witnessed a black disc fall from the digimon's neck. Dinomon climbed off, the then Falcomon was back in the sky, gliding down the side of the mountain.

"Awesome!" Mitchell smiled, jumping up to his digimon's side as he returned to his Lagartomon form. "You did it! You transformed."

"And we made it to the top!" Lagartomon said.

Mitchell looked around. "Yeah, we did," he said. He looked around, having expected more, but instead found nothing out of the ordinary, except the landscape now visible to them.

"The island," Doug said looking down. "It's not even all that big."

"And even from this height," Marcy added, "we can't see any other land. We could be weeks out by boat if we're lucky."

Mitchell cringed and fell to his knees. The answers he so desperately needed were not here. All they found was disappointment.

"Let's head back down," Doug said. "The other's must be getting worried."

They all nodded in agreement. Hornetmon grabbed Doug while Avesmon, having recovered slightly, flew up to grab Marcy, Mitchell, and Lagartomon, before gliding back down to meet the others.


	8. The Seventh Rookie

**I know, I just put out a chapter yesterday, but I typed this whole thing up in a day and wanted to put it up. It's kind of Alex-centric, and is gonna make you start to wonder about him a lot. Any, enjoy.

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The Seventh Rookie

A single digimon wandered toward the mountain through a grassy plain. He prowled on all four of his muscled legs with a long, powerful tail. He was mostly an reddy-orange with black stripes coating him. For a tiger, his ears were slightly lager than expected, and, though on all four at the moment, he could easily stand on his two hind legs when gearing up for a fight.

His yellow eyes were open, but Tigmon, the tiger digimon, had very keen hearing and scent as well. He knew long before he saw that his enemy was near, and so was prepared to fight when Trollmon jump out from the cave he lived in.

Trollmon was a large monster, an ocher color and covered in matted fur. He had two beady eyes and his nose was about half of his head. His arms were so long that his knuckles dragged on the ground as he walked, and, despite his legs being short, they were powerful, enabling the beast to jump great heights.

"My arch nemesis, Tigmon, has neared my territory," Trollmon said, his raspy voice squeaking a bit. "He apparently wishes to be destroyed."

Tigmon stood tall, revealing his armored white underbelly before flexing his black gloved front paws. "You, Trollmon, are mistaken, for it is I that will be the victor of any battle. It is my job to protect this island's peaceful digimon, but a recent disturbance has brought me here to discover the source of the black discs that have been turning tame digimon into rampaging beasts. You have this one chance to stand aside and allow me to pass before I will have to destroy you."

Trollmon laughed at Tigmon's statement. "Try to destroy me if you like," the monster-digimon said, " but you will find that I am not so easy as you seem to think."

The two digimon stood ready, and as if they could read one another's minds, they each charged forward at the same time, striking. The two attacks collided as the two digimon landed, and several trees and rocks were destroyed.

"Cease this pointless fighting," a deep voice, almost a whisper on the wind, spoke as the two digimon prepared to attack one another again. The two looked around, attempting to find the speaker, only to find it right in front of them. Mefistomon was a dark, devil digimon, standing at about three times an adult human's height, all that was visible of him was his red face, with two horns, thin and twisted to the side, and two coal black eyes, though they glowed. The rest of the digimon was hidden under a constantly billowing black cape.

"Who are you to tell us what to do?" Trollmon questioned.

Tigmon, however, knew better. "Mefistomon. No doubt you are the one who has been corrupting Harposa Island's digimon with the black discs."

"Indeed," Mefistomon said. "But I have a special task for you two. Destroy the seven human Digidestined that have arrived here."

"The Digidestined," Tigmon said. He prepared to strike Mefistomon. "If they are here, then it is my duty to protect them." He pounced, but Mefistomon struck out with his scythe, throwing Tigmon to the wayside. It happened so fast that Trollmon was only able to see the flash of the light hitting the scythe before the weapon had disappeared under the billowing cloak again, seeing nothing of the body under the cloak. When the tiger-digimon returned to his feet, his eyes were blank slates.

"Now go, do my bidding," Mefistomon said before disappearing.

Payton's eyes kept glancing upward the group of eight, four humans and four digimon, traveled toward the mountain that marked the general center of the island. It had been about three hours since Marcy, Doug, Buzzmon, and Tweetmon had gone off to search for Mitchell and Lagartomon, or so she assumed. She wasn't a very good judge of time.

The silence as they walked was different from the day before. It was evident that they were all worried about what could have happened to their friends since they had set up camp the night before. Glancing at Landon, Payton was surprised that his face seemed to hold regret.

Payton glanced up when she felt Landon's brown eyes travel in her direction, but she stopped when she saw two figures in the sky heading their way. Her gasp stopped the progress of the others and they all turned to look up as well, all tense, not knowing what she had seen. But soon, they all relaxed, recognizing Avesmon and Hornetmon coming down, carrying not only Marcy and Doug, but Mitchell and Lagartomon as well.

"Guys," Payton called out. "Down here!" She dropped what she had been carrying and began waving her arms, the others following her example to make sure they had their friends' attentions. Soon, they were waving back.

Payton, Alex, and all four digimon ran to the others when they landed, enveloping them all in hugs. They all sat down for lunch and allowed Mitchell and Lagartomon to relate their tale as they ate what was left of their food supply.

"We ought to get going," Landon said. "Find a place near water and food to camp." He stood, but stopped, spotting something coming their way.

The others all looked to where he was staring and spotted Tigmon.

"Hey, I didn't know Tony the Tiger was a digimon," Doug said. "Hope he brought some Frosted Flakes."

"That's Tigmon," Vulpimon said. "He's a friendly, do-gooder digimon, and a strong one too."

Tigmon, however, stood ready to strike.

"Um, why does he not look like a do-gooder?" Marcy asked.

And then he pounced, causing all the children and digimon to turn and run. He landed right in the center of where they had been, and his powerful Decimating Pounce certainly did its intended job, throwing all the kids to the ground, through they had escaped the worst of the attack, which destroyed all their bags except the one Camelbak Alex still wore and the knapsack Landon still had snapped to his waist.

"And it definitely isn't acting so much like a do-gooder," Doug said.

"Another one," Damien said, pointing in the opposite direction.

"That's Trollmon," Bloommon said.

"But he and Tigmon are nemeses," Buzzmon said.

"Someone should tell them that," Alex said.

"Looks like it's time to evolve," Tweetmon said.

"Right," the other five rookie digimon agreed.

"Vulpimon evolve to... Zorromon."

"Buzzmon evolve to... Hornetmon."

"Tweetmon evolve to... Avesmon."

"Ottemon evolve to... Coralmon."

"Bloommon evolve to... Fleurmon."

"Lagartomon evolve to... Dinomon."

Vulpimon, Hornetmon, and Bloommon turned to Trollmon while Avesmon, Coralmon, and Dinomon turned to Tigmon. The children all took shelter behind a rock to the side, Alex clutching Sikamon tightly.

Floating above them all, unseen, Mefistomon watched the battle. "They're stronger than I thought," he mused, seeing that six had reached the Champion level. Then he spotted Alex and Sikamon. "But why has that one not yet reached its Rookie level?"

"Flame Thrower!" Zorromon yelled, crouched while shooting a stream of fire at Trollmon.

"Petal Blaster!" Fleurmon attacked with hundreds of exploding petals.

"Stinging Slugger!" Hornetmon attacked Trollmon from above with an energy punch.

"Razor Wing!" Avesmon show metal feathers at Tigmon from above.

Once the feathers hit, the other two went in for an attack.

"Seeweed Slap," Coralmon cried, slapping Tigmon with hardened tentacles. Dinomon ran along one of these, striking with his Raptor Wrath after jumping at Tigmon.

The two attacking digimon were both thrown back a bit, but not really injured. They had not been expecting such strength from the Digidestineds' digimon. However, before they could retaliate, a small explosion distracted them all as the rock the kids had been behind unexpectedly blew up. In moments, all six digimon had grabbed their partner and pulled them away, and when the smoke and dust cleared, Tigmon and Trollmon had both disappeared. Standing near where the rock had been, covered in dust, were Alex and Sikamon, as the digimon had been thinking solely of their partners.

"Alex, are you okay?" Landon asked, running to his brother.

Alex coughed a bit, then nodded. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just dirty."

The others all were set down again, and then the digimon all returned to their Rookie forms, looking absolutely exhausted.

"Now we really need to find a safe place for the night," Marcy said helping Tweetmon to her feet.

"And of course all of our gear has been decimated," Mitchell said.

"We're sorry we couldn't stop that," Tweetmon said.

"Don't be stupid," Damien said. "If you had tried, you'd be blackened rubble too."

"Oh, Damien, I didn't know you cared so much," Buzzmon said.

"I care that I don't die," he said. "You guys getting destroyed means I'm not far behind."

"Well when you put it that way..." Buzzmon said.

"Let's just go," Landon said.

They all nodded and headed in a new direction.

It wasn't long that they came to what appeared to be a hostel. "Well, it's got walls and a roof," Doug finally said after a few minutes of just staring at the building.

"And it might have food," Bloommon said.

"And I can bathe properly!" Marcy said, walking forward, the idea of a bath on her mind.

"What are we waiting for?" Lagartomon said. "Lets go!"

Thirteen kids and digimon ran forward, Mitchell reaching the door first and pulling it open. Only Alex stood back. Landon and Sikamon noticed this and returned to where Alex stood while Vulpimon stood at the door waiting for Landon.

"What's up, Alex?" Landon asked.

"Don't you want to go in?" Sikamon asked.

Alex shook his head. "I don't think it's safe," Alex said.

"What do you mean?" Landon asked. "It seems perfectly safe to me."

"If it wasn't, the others would have come running out by now," Sikamon said.

Alex waited a moment then nodded. "I guess you're right," he said and smiled. They went forward, but Alex stopped again, examining the shadow of the building. It didn't seem to match. But seeing the look on his brother's face, he called, "Race you!" and ran for the door.

"Not the best food, but what can you expect?" Ottemon said as the brothers, Sikamon, and Vulpimon walked into a small cafeteria. No food was being served, but there were some vending machines, and after a few failed attempts at punching in the codes for food, a few of the digimon had just blasted off the fronts.

"This really doesn't feel moral," Payton said before biting into a chocolate bar. "But it tastes so right."

"I've never had this kind of mud before," Bloommon said. "It tastes odd."

"It's not mud," Doug said. "It's chocolate. And it's like bliss in your mouth."

"What's the matter, kid?" Damien asked, seeing that Alex wasn't eating.

"Not hungry," Alex said.

"You should eat some anyway," Mitchell said. He tossed a package of chips to the youngest child.

"I don't feel well," Alex said.

Several worried eyes turned to Alex. "Maybe you're dehydrated," Payton said. "You should get something to drink." She turned to the vending machines with the drinks, but Alex just drank a little water from the waterpack he was still carrying.

"Now that I've eaten, I'm gonna catch a shower," Marcy said.

"Agreed," Damien said. They began towards the bedroom on the second floor, but eventually found only one door open. Marcy beat Damien to the bathroom.

Over the next couple of hours, they each got a turn in the bathroom to thoroughly wash up after their time outside. Alex went last, and by the time he came out, several of the others were already tucked into the covers of the beds and falling asleep. On the bed next to his brothers, Sikamon was asleep on a pillow.

"Hey, buddy, glad you're finally out," Landon said.

"You should really get some sleep," Vulpimon said.

"Who's on watch?" Alex asked.

"We're indoors," Doug said. "We figure we're good for the night."

Alex nodded. He looked down at his stomach. "I think I'm going to get something to eat."

"You do that," Ottemon said, before getting kicked by an annoyed Damien telling him to 'stuff it.' Doug assured the water-digimon it was simply a figure of speech and Damien didn't want anything stuffed.

Sikamon, however, opened his eyes. He scrambled off the bed and followed Alex out the room and down the steps. However, before Alex turned into the cafeteria, the young boy stopped and looked out the front door.

"What is it?" Sikamon asked Alex.

"I don't know," Alex said. "I think I hear something."

"Maybe we should get the others, then," Sikamon said.

"No, it's alright," Alex said. "It's not dangerous." He began toward the door, and am moment later, he was running outside, Sikamon barely able to keep up.

It was several minutes later that Mefistomon lowered from the sky, Trollmon and Tigmon with him in shining orbs. They landed in front of the hostel and walked in. "They've fallen into a trap so easily and now their lives are mine for the taking. Ready?"

"A moment I've been waiting for since I first hatched from my digiegg," Trollmon said.

"If it is what you desire, it shall be done," Tigmon said robotically.

"Good," Mefistomon said, but paused as the door of the room opened.

"Alex?" Landon called, worried that his brother was not back yet.

"Sikamon?" Vulpimon questioned. However, there was no reply.

_So the smallest seems to have disappeared,_ Mefistomon thought, shadowing himself, Trollmon, and Tigmon from sight.

"What is that odor?" Vulpimon questioned.

Landon stopped and sniffed. "I'm not sure, but it's rank," he said.

"It smells as bad as Trollmon," Vulpimon said. "Glad I don't have to look at that ugly face anymore."

Trollmon couldn't control his anger. "Oh yeah, you got something to say!" he yelled, jumping up and landing in front of the two.

"What in the," Landon yelped as he fell back. "How did you get here?"

Mefistomon lifted the shadow that still concealed him and Tigmon and the tiger jumped up to the second floor as well. "I brought them here, and it is here that we will deal the last blow to destroy you." With that, he threw up his arms, his cape revealing a darkened body for only a second, but no attention was paid to that as suddenly, the hostel eroded away to practically nothing, just a stairwell, and the single room that they had been staying in.

"Who opened a window?" Damien mumbled before opening one blue eye. Seeing that he was no longer indoors, he yelled, waking everyone up. They spotted Mefistomon as he floated upward and then Tigmon and Trollmon.

"What are you guys waiting for," Mitchell cried. "Evolve!"

The digimon all tried, but they all seemed even more tired than before they had found the hostel.

"How about plan B and run?" Payton cried, but before she could even stand, Landon was flung back to the bed he had been on and the sheets of the six beds wrapped up the kids. The digimon tugged and pulled, trying to free their partners, but were unable to, and couldn't use their attack because they could seriously injure their partners.

"Take care of these six while I find the smallest," Mefistomon said, turning around.

"Hey, no fair," Lagartomon said. "This is cheating!"

Landon struggled the hardest, but couldn't break free. Instead, he finally yelled out as loud as he could. "Alex! Wherever you are, RUN!"

Alex and Sikamon had come across a small pond and a few berry bushes. He sat down there, looking up at the moonlight from between the trees and popping berries into his mouth.

"Why'd you come here?" Sikamon asked, though he too was enjoying the berries.

"I think I heard a voice," Alex said. "It told me to leave."

"A voice?" Sikamon asked. "A voice of what?"

Alex shrugged. "But it was kind and warm and familiar somehow. I liked it."

"I didn't hear any voice," Sikamon said.

"I also didn't like that place," Alex said. "Something was wrong with it."

Sikamon looked at Alex curiously, but then Alex stiffened again. "What's wrong?" Sikamon asked the young child.

"The others," he said. "They're in trouble." He stood up and began running, once again, Sikamon following after him. As they neared the sight where the hostel had been, Landon's voice carried easily, clearly instructing Alex to run. And Alex did, right back to where the hostel had stood. Sikamon couldn't keep up.

"Ah, come to face your demise," Mefistomon said, spotting Alex. "And without your digimon friend to help you." He produced a scythe, only a single, hand visible outside the cape.

The rookie digimon were trying their best to fend off Trollmon and Tigmon. But both were powerful digimon above their level, so the fight wasn't easy, especially as even all six of them would be likely unable to defeat one of them.

"Vulpimon," Landon yelled, spotting his brother. "Get Alex out of there."

Vulpimon looked between the two brothers. He wanted to listen to everything Landon told him, but he wanted to protect Landon at all costs.

Before he could make up his mind, however, Mefistomon rose his scythe and began to bring it down. Alex yelled loudly, cowering away, until his digivice, clipped to his Camelbak, vibrated and shone brightly, sending Mefistomon into a cower. It shone brighter, the light flying upward, ceasing Tigmon and Trollmon where they stood.

"That light!" Trollmon cried. "It's horrible." He held up his arms to shield, but eventually jumped down, and out of sight.

Tigmon's reaction was the opposite as a dark shadow left him and he sucked in the light like it was his first breath.

The sheets all loosened and the digimon all ran back to their partners sides to help them untangle.

"No!" Mefistomon cried. "You've ruined everything." He swung the scythe again, and not even Tigmon moved fast enough to stop it.

A digimon burst through the trees yelling, "Star Beam!" A red beam shot from the digimon's forehead, striking the scythe and throwing it from Mefistomon's hand. This digimon looked like a bright orange lemur with a three-foot-long mechanical tail. The beam had shot from an eight-point red star on the digimon's forehead, and it had blue eyes that stared at Mefistomon as he climbed into Alex's shoulder.

"Who are you? You are not one of the Digidestined's digimon!" Mefistomon accused the small digimon.

"Correction, I am," the digimon replied. "I'm Astremon, evolved from Sikamon."

"_You_ were _Sikamon_?" Alex asked in awe.

"You seemed surprised," Astremon said.

"It matters not," Mefistomon said. He spread his arms out and all the beds that the others had remained in shot off like missiles. "Now you are alone, and though you took me by surprise, a mere Rookie cannot hope to defeat me."

"But they are not alone," Tigmon said, jumping down, landing between Alex and Mefistomon. He turned to Alex and Astremon. "Run with all your might. I will hold him off, but I cannot do so forever. Run and don't stop until you are safe."

The two nodded. "Right," Alex said. He turned with Astremon still on his shoulder and began to run as fast and as hard as his legs could take him. He didn't know where the others were or how to find them, but he did know that they were out there somewhere, and though they were separated, they were away from Mefistomon, and that gave him some hope that they would be okay.

* * *

**A few notes. First, Mefistomon, purposely spelled with an 'F' instead of 'PH' to distinguish from the Digimon series Mephistomon, from... Tamers? I'm not sure. All the satanic names seemed to have been used already. Second, Tigmon instead of just reusing Leomon was intentional as well, because what a Lion represents to most of the world, 'King of Beasts' is what a Tiger is to the Chinese.**

**And, once again, give me feed-back. Nothing is written beyond this point, (well, not for the next 15 chapters or so) so your ideas could really help me. Did you like Astremon? Were you thinking 'about time...' or 'Great timing!' or something entirely different? Character development? Anything?**


	9. The Defeat of Coyomon

The Defeat of Coyomon

"Hold on tight, Lagartomon!" Mitchell yelled, gripping tightly to the headboard of the bed as it rocketed toward part of the island. They both yelled as the bed crashed into a snowbank and they both were thrown into the snow.

Mitchell stood up after a few seconds later and shook as much of the snow off him that he could. For once, he was glad that he had worn pants over shorts as he was quickly feeling the cold. However, the short sleeves didn't help. He couldn't imagine how the others would be in the cold.

"Are you okay?" Mitchell asked his digimon partner.

"Yes," Lagartomon said, though the lizard digimon was shivering and wrapped his arms as tightly around himself as he could. "And you? Oh, your arm!"

Mitchell looked at his right arm and saw that it had become a bit of a bloody mess. He didn't feel too much pain and he assumed it was from the cold. He grabbed some snow and tried to pack it on, but it didn't work very well.

"Here," Lagartomon grabbed the pillow off the bed and used his claws to shred the pillowcase into strips of fabric. Using a little more snow to try to clean up as much as the blood as possible, Mitchell saw that he had a long, jagged cut on his arm. With Lagartomon's help, one of the strips was wrapped around the arm and tied off, though they did a poor job of it. Mitchell stuffed the rest of the strips into his pocket for later use.

"Let's get going," Mitchell said. "Standing around here isn't going to do any good."

"I guess, but what way do we go?" Lagartomon asked.

"Let's head in the direction of the mountain," Mitchell said. "At the very least, I expect the others will have the same idea."

The two began in the direction of the mountain, which they could barely even see.

"Maybe we should have stayed at the bed for the night," Lagartomon said after about an hour of walking. "At least we could have stayed under the blanket."

"If we had been really smart we would have brought the blanket with us and stayed wrapped up in it." Mitchell said. "If the others were here we could have a snowball fight and build snowmen... and of course freeze to death with no shelter."

"When did you become a pessimist?" Lagartomon asked.

Mitchell sighed. "I keep on a smile for the others," the blonde boy said. "Damien is so negative, I feel I need to be positive for the others."

"So, it's all a fake face?" Lagartomon asked.

"Not all of it," Mitchell said. "I usually am positive... but I'm not a fan of the cold."

"Neither am I," Lagartomon agreed.

As they kept walking, they suddenly heard a growl behind them. The two stopped walking and turned around slowly to see what had caused the low noise. Behind them, apparently having been stalking them for a while, was a white bear-like digimon which would have been almost invisible at a distance.

"What is it?" Mitchell asked.

"It's Moksgmolmon**(1)**," Lagartomon said.

"Usually friendly?" Mitchell asked cautiously.

"Um... well, it's not often to hear them growl..." Lagartomon said. The two had been slowly backing up from the Moksgomolmon to keep it at a distance. However the bear-like digimon seemed to notice this and got on its hind paws and roared. There, lodged in it's belly, was a visible black disc.

"It's got a black disc," Lagartomon noted the obvious.

"I see that," Mitchell said. "See if you can destroy it!"

"Oh, right," Lagartomon said. "Reptilian Razor Back!" Lagartomon got in his usual firing position, but the attack was less than mediocre.

"What was that?" Mitchell yelled.

"I'm exhausted and hungry," Lagartomon defended.

Moksgomolmon didn't seem to care and roared again. And then began to charge. The two jumped out of the way, in opposite direction. Suddenly Mitchell had an idea as the bear digimon got back on all fours.

"Hey, Lagartomon, distract if for just a few moments, okay," Mitchell called to his digimon partner.

Not knowing what Mitchell had planned, but trusting him, Lagartomon tried his attack again. It hit, but was still too weak to cause any damage. But it certainly caught Moksgomolmon's attention. The bear-digimon growled at the lizard digimon, but didn't notice Mitchell sneaking toward the side of it. It took a few steps toward a very wary Lagartomon, until Mitchell called out to it.

"Hey, you limp teddy bear." Moksgomolmon turned to Mitchell and stopped moving. Mitchell, however, was sprinting at the bear. With just a foot until he hit the bear, Mitchell went down, like he was slide-tackling a soccer ball. He slid under the bear, and his foot hit the black disc, which shattered. Being on snow, Mitchell slid several more feet than he meant to, and barely avoided the bear falling on him.

Lagartomon ran up to Mitchell. "That was crazy and you could have gotten yourself killed!" the lizard-digimon yelled.

"Well, I destroyed the black disc," Mitchell said.

"Which would have meant nothing if you had been destroyed in the process," Lagartomon said.

"Oh... my head..." Moksgomolmon said, sitting up. Mitchell and Lagartomon turned to look at the bear-digimon. "Did you free me from the power of that black disc?"

"Uh, yeah," Mitchell admitted.

Suddenly, the bear was hugging the both of them tightly. "Then I owe you my deepest gratitude. Please, tell me what I might be able to do for you!"

"A bit of food would be nice," Lagartomon said.

"Or help us find our friends," Mitchell said.

"Food I can do," Moksgomolmon said. "And, as soon as you have warm food in your bellies, we will go in search of your friends."

"We've got to find Alex," Landon yelled, running in the direction with the mountain. Vulpimon was right behind him, but trying to convince him that they should find cover. But Landon was insistent, and Vulpimon did understand why. After all, last they had seen the eight-year-old, he had been without any of the other humans, just him, Astremon, and Tigmon, who while at the moment of them leaving, seemed to be on the side of the humans, had earlier been on the side of Mefistomon.

Around them, there was a lot of snow, but not much visibility due to more snow coming down thickly. Both Landon and Vulpimon were soaked from the snow, but even if they had decided to stop, there really wasn't much cover. They'd seen a tree or two, and a bush, but nothing that would provide any good cover, and not enough wood to make a good fire.

"We should get out of this storm, Landon," Vulpimon said.

"Well, do you see a way out?" Landon asked, staring down at the fox-digimon, looking a bit like a drowned rat. Landon was visibly shivering, and the snow falling on his shoulders and head wasn't melting as it had before. Landon stomped hard on the ground, once, twice, and with the third stomp, he heard a crack.

"What was that?" Vulpimon asked.

"Run!" Landon yelled, and began running, as the definite cracking of ice followed the two. Suddenly, Landon disappeared with a splash.

"Landon!" Vulpimon yelled, but didn't see the boy. He heard a thumping beneath him, and immediately set to work. "Tuli Tail!" The fireballs were smaller than usual, but were enough to melt a hole in the ice. Landon managed to squeeze out, but was shaking even harder than before. "Grab onto me, and hold tight," Vulpimon instructed Landon, and without a word, Landon obeyed. Vulpimon began running through the snow, until they were certain they were off the frozen lake. The only shelter they could find was under a tree, and while it was inadequate, they didn't have any other choice. Vulpimon gathered as many sticks as could be found, and after several tries, managed to start a small fire.

"Hang on, Landon, things will be better in the morning," Vulpimon said, curling up next to Landon.

Though Landon was long asleep, he was mumbling, and the one word Vulpimon could make out was "Alex."

"You know, you're a funny looking thing," Moksgomolmon said to Mitchell as they were walking the next morning. As promised, Moksgolmon had fed Mitchell and Lagartomon, and sheltered them through the night, and now was helping them to find their friends as best he could. "What are you?"

"Oh, I'm a human," Mitchell said.

"A humon?" Moksgomolmon pondered. "I don't believe I've ever heard of that type of digimon."

"He's not a digimon," Lagartomon said. "A hu_man_ from Earth... I got that correct, right Mitchell?"

"On the dot," Mitchell confirmed.

"Then what are you doing on Harposa Island?" Moksgomolmon asked.

"You know, I've been trying to figure that out myself," Mitchell said. "But, as long as I'm here, I might as well make the best of it, right?"

"Oh, you don't want to walk out there," Moksgomolmon suddenly said, stopping both Mitchell and Lagartomon in their tracks.

"Why not?" Lagartomon asked.

"Because that is the frozen lake," Moksgomolmon said. "And from the looks of it, it's been recently cracked."

Mitchell and Lagartomon looked at one another. "Hopefully it wasn't anyone we knew," Mitchell said.

"We'll go around," Moksgomolmon said. He led them to the side and around what Mitchell and Lagartomon couldn't distinguish lake from land. But, soon, the bear digimon gave them the okay that the lake was behind them, and that's when they found the trail.

Landon's nose was the first of his senses to wake, as he smelled smoke, and then the scent of cooking fish. He was still cold, but the warmth behind him made him aware that he wasn't along.

"Did you evolve to Zorromon?" he asked, opening his eyes, only to spot Vulpimon in by the small fire, munching on some raw fish. This jolted Landon awake and to his feet, which quickly caused him to fall, as he was still feeling the effects of falling into the lake the night before.

"Calm down, won't you," Mitchell said, chuckling a bit.

"But it..." Landon pointed to Vulpimon, then turned around to see Moksgomolmon. "Who are you?"

"Our friend," Mitchell said. "Moksgomolmon. And without his warmth, I doubt you'd be alive right now. We found out about four hours ago and couldn't wake you, your fire was about out, and you two were both soaked."

"Good thing they found us and not a digimon with a black disc," Vulpimon said.

"What happened to you two, anyway?" Lagartomon asked. "Fall into the lake?"

"That's exactly what happened to me," Landon said. He turned around until he spotted the mountain again. "And now I'm gonna go find my brother." He got about two steps before his legs collapsed.

"Not without eating you're not," Mitchell said.

"Are you going to stop me?" Landon practically spat at Mitchell, his eyes narrowed.

"No, but at the pace you're going, you're not getting very far," Mitchell said.

Landon frowned, but agreed to eating something.

"You're still looking a bit blue, you know," Lagartomon said. "You might want to sit next to Moksgomolmon again."

"No thanks," Landon said getting closer to the fire. Vulpimon moved to be next to him.

It was about an hour later that Landon was on his feet again and heading toward the mountain. The others followed, though were a bit annoyed by the approach Landon was taking.

"By the way," Landon said after as they were walking. "What happened to your arm?"

"Huh?" Mitchell questioned, and then remembered how he had cut it. "It happened when the bed crash landed."

"You did a pretty bad job of wrapping it," Landon said. "Looks like that bandage is going to fall off any second."

"Yeah, well, I only had one hand to wrap it with and Lagartomon doesn't exactly have opposable thumbs," Mitchell said.

"You've still got the first aid kit," Vulpimon said.

Landon sighed. "Okay, let's get that cleaned and whatnot," he said.

Mitchell took off the bandage and Landon cringed a bit.

"What's wrong?" Mitchell asked, seeing Landon's face.

"Well, I'll never be a doctor, lets put it that way," he said. He pulled out the anti-bacterial gel, but was avoiding looking at the cut.

"You're afraid of blood?" Mitchell asked.

"I'm not afraid!" Landon yelled. "I just don't like it."

Mitchell chuckled a bit, but took the gel and spread some on the cut. He then pulled one of the strips of fabric out and, folding it over a few times, covered the cut. "Could I have the medical tape?" he then asked, trying not to move his arm so the fabric wouldn't be disturbed.

"I've got it," Landon said, glancing back. He took out a few strips and made sure the fabric was tight to Mitchell's skin.

"You know, if the sight of blood disturbs you, maybe I should be in charge of the first aid kit again..." Mitchell said once they were moving again.

"Whatever," Landon said, taking off the knapsack and shoving it into Mitchell's chest, a bit harder than he had meant to. As Mitchell was in mid-step, it knocked the blonde boy off balance and he fell.

"That was a bit unnecessary violence," Lagartomon said as Mitchell was still on the ground.

"Well, Mitchell could use more tact with his words," Vulpimon said.

"Be a bit more careful," Mitchell said, standing up.

"Now, there's no need to be fighting," Moksgomolmon said.

"What are you even doing here still?" Landon yelled at the bear-digimon.

"Hey, he's a friend, alright," Mitchell said.

"I'm not so concerned about your friends right now," Landon said. "I've got my own problems."

"You know, maybe if you were a bit more open, we wouldn't have any problems right now," Mitchell snapped.

"Would you listen to yourself for once," Landon yelled. "We're all split up, we don't know where anyone else landed, and I haven't got a clue where Alex is!"

Mitchell stared at Landon for a moment. "So that's it, huh?" he questioned. "You're worried about your brother."

"He's out there, all alone," Landon said. "He must be scared..."

"He's not alone," Mitchell said. "He has Astremon with him. And I don't think you give your brother enough credit. I don't think he is scared. He's actually pretty good at taking care of himself."

"He's so young," Landon said.

"He is," Mitchell said. "But you're no good to him if you find him by exhausting yourself, instead you'll be a burden. Don't you get that. You can't take care of him if you can't take care of yourself."

Landon's brown eyes widened at Mitchell's statement, but then he looked away, realizing that Mitchell was probably right.

"And you could show a little gratitude to Moksgomolmon," Mitchell continued. "After all, it was his warmth that saved your life."

"How about we keep moving," Vulpimon said. "After all, we're still out in the open and all that shouting is likely to attract something..."

However, they hadn't gotten more than a step when 'something' indeed appeared before them. They all stopped. "It's Coyomon again," Vulpimon said.

"You don't suppose that he's simply got a black disc, do you?" Mitchell questioned.

"To my knowledge, Coyomon has always been a pretty nasty digimon," Moksgomolmon said.

"Well, let's convince him to keep his distance," Mitchell said pulling out his digivice.

"Lagartomon evolve to... Dinomon."

"You too, Vulpimon," Landon said.

"Vulpimon evolve to... Zorromon."

"I scared you off last time," Zorromon said, "and that was alone. You really think you stand a chance against two?"

"Last time I was taken by surprise," Coyomon growled, "This time, I know exactly how to defeat you." He ran at the group, but then cut to the side. "Rancid Blaster!" the green fire shot from his mouth, but at Mitchell and Landon.

The two boys both stood motionless, completely taken by surprise. They could both hear their partner calling their names, but it didn't really register, as all they could stare at was the stream of green fire headed in their direction.

But then something white appeared before them, and the momentary fear was replaced by anger as Moksgomolmon fell to the ground, having taken the attack head on.

"You'll pay for that," Dinomon yelled. The raptor-digimon sprinted at Coyomon. "Raptor's Wrath!" he yelled, slashing at the virus-type digimon with his long claws, blasts of energy coming off the claws as he did so.

Coyomon was hit back, but stayed on his feet. "Rancid Blaster!"

"Flame Thrower!" Zorromon shot at Coyomon. This knocked Coyomon down, but he still looked on the prowl. "Tail Club!" This hit Coyomon hard, landing at Dinomon's feet.

"Raptor's Wrath!"

And then, Coyomon was gone, disintegrating into nothingness, the little bits that made him up floating up into the air and in the general direction of the mountain.

Landon and Mitchell were both kneeling next to Moksgomolmon. "Come on, Moksgomolmon," Mitchell said. "You have to be alright." There seemed to be a few tears building up in his eyes.

"You shouldn't have taken that blast for us," Landon said.

"I had to," Moksgomolmon said. "There is evil in this world, evil which I cannot fight, but which you are able to defeat. The fact of the matter is that you two, and the rest of your friends are special. Anyway, digimon don't ever die, their data is simply rewritten. I'll be born again, at Primary Village."

"I'm sorry," Landon said, a tear spilling down his cheek. "I was a jerk to you for no reason, and you still threw yourself into an attack for me."

Two beeps rang out from each of the boys' digivices. They both began to glow, and so did Moksgomolmon. A moment later the glow died down and Moksgomolmon was healed from his wounds.

"You... you're alright?" Mitchell asked as Moksgomolmon got back to his feet.

"I feel better than ever," Moksgomolmon said, standing up again.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Mitchell cheered jumping into the air before giving the bear-digimon a hug.

"Let's get going," Landon said, standing as well. "Let's find the others, and then we'll find Mefistomon and teach him why not to mess with us."

"Thanks for everything you've done for us," Zorromon said bending a bit as Landon climbed onto his back. "But we'll take it from here."

"Buy, Moksgomolmon," Mitchell said, climbing on Zorromon behind Landon. "Hope to see you again."

And then Zorromon with the two boys and Dinomon took off at high speeds in the direction of the mountain.

**(1) Moksgom'ol is the Native American indian name for the Kermode Bear, a black bear for which about 1/10th of the population has a white or cream colored coat.**


	10. The Video Game

The Video Game

"Hold on tight, Bloommon!" Payton yelled as they were flying toward the ground.

"You too, Payton!" the flower-digimon replied as they were soaring toward the ground. The two clung to one another as the bed they were on went sailing toward a grassy hill. When it hit, they were thrown off the bed and began to roll down the hill.

Payton stumbled a bit once she stopped rolling and tried to stand. Bloommon caught Payton when the brunette girl almost fell over.

"Now I remember why I _hate_ roller coasters," Payton said, bending forward a bit, breathing deeply, and trying not to throw up. Considering the last food she had eaten had been a figment of her imagination, she managed to keep what little bit of food in her system down.

"And I remember why I'm glad to be a ground-bound digimon," Bloommon agreed. She shook her head, her petals ruffling and unruffling as she did so. She then turned to see their surroundings. "I hate to say this, but I don't know where we are."

Payton stood straight to have her own look around. "Look, over there," she said, pointing into the distance. "It's a building. It's only..."

"Miles and several large hills away," Bloommon said. "Shouldn't take more than a few hours to get to."

Payton sighed deeply. "If there is anyone there, they may be able to help us," Payton said. "It's our best bet right now. We don't know where the others are."

"Where would you head if you were one of the others?" Bloommon asked, turning toward Payton as the girl began to walk.

"Well, Landon's gonna be searching for Alex... Alex will hopefully be running for his life from Mefistomon... Damien is probably complaining about why he has to move... Mitchell will be looking to gather us all up... or possibly he'll just try to take Mefistomon on with just him and Lagartomon. You know, I really don't know where the others could be or what they might be doing. I just know that I don't want to be out in the complete open, and that that building might be a good place to rest." Payton sighed and began moving forward with more determination. Bloommon stuck by her side, not saying anything as she understood that the young artist was not in a mood to talk.

-0-0-0-

"Buzzmon, we have a problem," Doug yelled as the bed they were on was about to hit a tree.

"Hold tight," Buzzmon said, grabbing Doug's wrists and jumping off the bed, wings buzzing. The two dropped a foot at first, but then Buzzmon's wings proved to be strong enough as the two hovered in air. The bed hit the tree and shattered, making Doug cringe knowing that it had almost been him.

"That was a little too close for comfort," Buzzmon said as he lowered to the ground. He waited until Doug's feet were planted before he released the eleven-year-old from his grip.

Doug looked around, but couldn't figure out where they were. "This is... not what I was expecting today... at all."

Buzzmon looked at his partner from where he had landed on a boulder. "What did you expect to come of today, exactly?" the insect digimon questioned.

"I don't know," Doug shrugged. "Probably facing off against Trollmon again, and driving him off... or freeing Tigmon of his black disc's control."

"We managed to do _that_ already," Buzzmon reminded the tall boy.

"Yeah, after Mefistomon dug his hands into our business and almost killed us," Doug said. "Now we're all separated and he's probably going to come after us one by one, pick us off." He pounded a fisted hand into his other hand. "We have to find the others. No question about that."

"How do you suggest we go about doing that?"

"Fly up and see what's around," Doug said.

"And how will that help?" Buzzmon asked, lifting a bit into the air.

"Once we know what's around, we can decide what our next move will be," Doug said. "Let's not travel blind, for once."

Buzzmon flew up above the treetops and began looking around. "Hey, look over there," he said suddenly, pointing.

"I'm tall but I'm not that tall," Doug replied. "I can't see."

"It's a building," Buzzmon said. "And I think this one actually exists."

"How about we head there," Doug said. "If I know the others, they'll try to find shelter first."

"Good thinking," Buzzmon said, gliding down next to Doug and began in the direction of the building.

-0-0-0-

"We've been walking for hours and the building doesn't look any closer," Payton complained when they were at the top of the third hill they had walked. Apparently the building had looked a lot closer.

"Not to mention I'm starved," Bloommon said. "When was the last time we had any food?"

"I honestly can't remember," Payton said. "But let's not stop here in the middle of no where. At least if we keep moving we might find some food."

The two began walking again, but suddenly, the ground below them caved and they fell into a hole. After rubbing her aching back, Payton looked up to see two what appeared to be two potatoes with eyes and ears staring down at her and Bloommon.

"And what do we have here?" One asked, a smirk forming on what had appeared to be a crack but Payton saw was actually a mouth.

"It looks like it's a pair of trespassers," the other said.

"Who are they?" Payton asked Bloommon quietly.

"They're a pair of Prátaímon," Bloommon said. "Also known as the spuds of the Digiworld."

"I can see that," Payton sighed.

"Do you know what we do to trespassers?" The second one asked, catching their attention again.

"Let them go with a snack and some helpful directions?" Payton asked, hopeful but doubting that she was right.

"No, we make them pay," the first said. They both began laughing manically.

Payton frowned and then stood up. She was not about to allow a pair of potatoes walk all over her. "Oh yeah, and how to do plan to do that? You're a pair of potatoes! You don't even have any arms or legs! How about I cook and eat you!"

Suddenly, arms and legs sprouted from the two digimon. "Wanna repeat that?" They asked in unison.

"Let's get going," Bloommon yelled, grabbing Payton and running into the tunnel they had fallen into. The two Prátaímon went after them.

However, tired from all the walking and no food or rest, Payton soon tripped. As the spuds had about stood up, Payton threw her hands up to guard her face, exposing the digivice clipped to her hip. It shone and the two spuds stopped in their tracks.

"They stopped," Bloommon said, amazed.

The two shook off a moment of shock.

"That was refreshing," the first said.

"I know," the second said. They both turned to Payton and spoke in unison again, "We owe you a debt. What may we do for you?"

"We're trying to reach a building that we spotted in the distance," Payton said.

"But climbing the hills is exhausting us," Bloommon said.

"And we're starved," Payton said.

"Well, keep going straight down this tunnel," one said. "It'll have an opening right in front of the building."

"And all the roots hanging down in front of you are edible," the second said.

"Thanks," Bloommon said and the two began down the tunnel.

"Allow us to escort you," they said, once again in unison.

"Oh, that is so not happening," Payton said, glancing at Bloommon.

"On it," Bloommon announced. "Pollen Punch!" The attack hit the ceiling above the spud-digimons' heads and the ground caved in, blocking the tunnel.

"I guess we have to keep going," Payton said, turning down the tunnel. She produced the tiny flashlight she had gotten from the store a few days earlier, glad that Mitchell had insisted that everyone human had one. The two grabbed random roots as they went, nibbling a bit, but not really enjoying the taste. However, their stomachs stopped growling.

-0-0-0-

"Whoa, is this heaven?" Doug questioned as the two walked into the building finally reaching it after just a few hours of walking.

"I'm not sure what heaven is," Buzzmon said, "But this place seems to be... I'm not sure what."

"It's a giant video game console," Doug said. "And if there is one thing I'm good at, it's wasting my life away on video games!" The 'building' as it was, was a television about the size of a large house, and connected to it was a console about the size of an tank as well as a controller about the size of a kayak. Doug was just tall enough to move the joystick with his arms and press the 'A' and 'B' buttons with his right foot.

"And this is a high achievement in the human world?" Buzzmon asked.

"To a select few," Doug said. "Most people don't understand them the way I do. Now, where is the power button... Aha!" He pressed a large button on the console and the television turned on. Within a few seconds, pictures of all sorts of digimon appeared, along with the words, **Pick Your Character.**

"Oh, I've never played this game," Doug said, smiling brightly. He began scrolling through the different digimon that he could play as until he finally came upon one that he knew. "Hey, isn't that Bloommon?"

"It is!" Buzzmon agreed. "Interesting, considering most of the other choices are evolved higher."

"Well, that just means playing as her makes it a challenge," Doug said, smiling. He kicked the A button, selecting to play as Bloommon. "And, I do enjoy a bit of a challenge in a videogame."

-0-0-0-

Payton and Bloommon could just see a bit of light coming through the tunnel, indicating that they were near their desired exit. They sped up, until Payton's digivice began to go off again, glowing brightly.

"Bloommon, what's happening now?" Payton asked, a bit of panic evident in her voice.

"I'm not sure," Bloommon replied. However, before any more words could be said, the digivice disappeared, taking Payton wherever it went with it.

-0-0-0-

On the screen, a red digivice appeared next to the Bloommon character, flashed a few times, before Payton appeared.

"Whoa, that is so awesome that Payton is a character in this game," Doug said. "I wish I could be a video game character."

Payton looked around, panicked. "What's wrong with her?" Buzzmon asked.

"Oh, it's just the set-up scenario," Doug said. "All video games start out that way so that the player has a reason to be playing."

"Where the heck am I?" Payton asked, still looking around. Suddenly, she seemed to focus on the screen. "Doug? Buzzmon? What are-" She had tried to walk toward them, but had crashed into the screen.

"Uh, Doug, I don't think that she's just a character," Buzzmon said as Payton was rubbing her nose. "I think that's the real Payton."

"Of course I'm the real Payton," the brown-haired girl snapped. "Now, where am I and... how did I get my shoes back? I thought they were destroyed with the rest of our camping gear."

"Yeah, that's the real Payton," Doug sighed.

"Okay, where are we and why is there a glass wall between us?" Payton asked, hands on her hips.

"Um, I think you're in a video game," Doug said, throwing a hand behind his head. "That's okay, I think I can get you out." He pressed the menu button. From the selections he was given, he chose 'Quit.'

**All data will be deleted. Are you sure you want to quit?**

"Deleted?" Payton yelled, seeing the screen somehow from where she was. "I don't want to be deleted!"

"Okay, won't do that," Doug said. He returned to the game. "I guess to get you out, we have to win."

"Win what?" Payton asked.

"We're not sure," Buzzmon said.

"Well find out and get sure because I do not want to be stuck in a video game the rest of my life!"

A moment later, the ground behind them began to fall, and out popped the real Bloommon. "Payton!" she called out upon seeing her partner and ran past Doug and Buzzmon, before smacking into the television screen. "Payton, are you trapped?"

"Yeah, because of those two," Payton said, nodding her head towards Doug and Buzzmon.

"I'll get you out of there," the flower-digimon said. "Pollen Punch." The attack hit the screen, but bounced off and came back, hitting Bloommon.

"Don't worry, Bloommon," Buzzmon said. "Doug has this under control."

"Maybe if I win the game, you'll be released," Doug said. He moved the joystick and the Bloommon began to move. Payton sighed and followed. Within a few seconds, they were attacked, and by hitting A and B a few times, Doug learned how to control and shoot off Bloommon's different attacks and defenses.

Soon, however, they were attacked by a larger Digimon and this time, the Bloommon couldn't defeat it. "This is looking bad," Buzzmon said.

"Payton, hold out your digivice," Doug yelled.

"Why?" Payton asked, grabbing it and holding it out anyway. Doug jumped off the controller and hit a front button, which made the Bloommon evolve, like he had predicted. By the time he was back on the controller, the evolution was finished, and Doug quickly won the fight.

"You know, considering you're smaller than the controller, you're scary good at this," Payton said.

"Eh, games are a bit predictable," Doug said. "Usually, there's a lot of exploring, but we're headed straight for the mountain."

"Why the mountain?" Bloommon asked.

"Because that's where the bad guy always is," Doug said.

Payton sighed, but had no other choice but to follow the Fleurmon character as Doug seemed to know what he was doing.

Soon, and a few more enemies later, they were at the top of the mountain. Payton seemed exhausted, and Doug looked a little tired. "Maybe you should pause the game and recuperate," Payton said, looking at him. "You know, it must be difficult moving more than your thumbs."

"I'm good," Doug insisted. He led the digimon into a circle and suddenly a dark shadow appeared. "Hold out your digivice," he called to Payton. She did as told. "Now, Bloommon, I need you to hit the button on the front. Just press and hold. And Buzzmon, take over A and B. Hit them when I tell you."

"Right," the two digimon said and took position.

Bloommon hit the button and the digivice began to glow. The Fleurmon seemed to have renewed strength while the shadow seemed to lose points. Doug began shouting "A," "B," and "Both!" at seemingly random, but it was hitting the shadow and the point scales showed the shadows life decreasing. Finally, it was defeated.

After that, digivice disappeared from Payton's hand, appearing outside the screen, and then Payton rolled out.

"I am so tired," Payton said. "And starved."

"Agreed," Doug said, jumping off the controller and taking a seat.

"Sorry to disappoint, but you've got to battle me now," the voice of Trollmon said, and they all looked to the top of the television to see the ugly digimon. The digimon jumped down. "Now, which of you do I destroy first?"

"Evolve!" Payton and Doug shouted to their digimon partners at the same time, each grabbing their digivice.

"Bloommon evolve to... Fleurmon!"

"Buzzmon evolve to... Hornetmon!"

"Petal Blaster!" Fleurmon cried and shot off the petal bullets at Trollmon.

"Stinging Slugger!" Hornetmon attacked once Fleurmon's attack had finished.

Trollmon, however, simply swung a punch at both of them and knocked them both down. Both Champion digimon were back on their feet within moments, but Payton knew that neither had eaten since she had been in the game. She looked at the controller, and then the set, seeing it was ready for a new character to be chosen. She ran to the controller.

"What are you doing?" Doug asked, following her.

"It's a long shot, but, how do you choose a character?" Payton asked, still scrolling.

"Press A, why?" Doug asked. "Because this is so not the time to be playing this."

"Press it!" Payton said, her eyes lighting up.

Doug pressed it as if by instinct. Trollmon, who was just about to pounce on Hornetmon suddenly glowed and disappeared.

"Hey, what happened?" Trollmon's voice sounded and they all turned to the screen.

"You chose Trollmon as your character?" Doug asked.

"Well, now he's stuck in there until he wins, right?" Payton asked.

"Oh, Payton, you're genius!" Fleurmon cried, and devolved to Bloommon before hugging the brunette.

"Let's get headed back toward the mountain," Doug said. "I think we'll probably find the others that way.

Payton nodded. "For once, I think you're actually right."

"So... you're not mad at me for getting you stuck in the game?" Doug asked.

"No, I'm still mad about that," Payton said. "But your innate ability to play video games apparently came in handy for once, so I won't kill you just yet.

* * *

**I feel like this chapter might be shorter than other chapters. And less descriptive. You can probably tell at what point I got lazy and just began typing whatever came to mind until I had it finished. Sorry if it sucks. Please review anyway.**


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